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1 


ART  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 

An  Illustrated  Monthly  Magazine 
Published  by  THE  ARCHAEOLOGICAL  SOCIETY 

OP  WASHINGTON,  AFFILIATED  WITH  THB 

ARCHAEOLOGICAL  INSTITUTE  OF  AMERICA. 


ART  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY  PRESS,  Inc. 

FEBRUARY,  1922 


VOLUME  XIII 


Number  2 


ART  EDITOR 
WILLIAM  H.  HOLMES 

EDITORIAL  STAFF 

Virgil  Barker 

Howard  Crosby  Butler 

Charlbs  Upson  Clark 

Albert  T.  Clay 

Charles  T.  Currelly 

H.  R.  Fairclouoh 

Edgar  L.  Hbwbtt 

Fiskb  Kimball 

David  M.  Robinson 

Helen  Wright 


DIRECTOR  AND  EDITOR 
MITCHELL  CARROLL 

BOARD  OF  DIRECTORS 

J.  Townsbnd  Russell,  President 

Frank  Springer,  Vice-President 

Mitchell  Carroll,  Secretary 

John  B.  Larner,  Treasurer 

R.  V,  D.  Magoffin 

Ex-officio  as  President  of  the  Institute 

Robert  Woods  Bliss 

Mrs.  B.  H.  Warder 

Walter  C  GlEphane,  Counsel 


CONTENTS 

RUSSIAN  NUMBER 
With  the  collaboration  of  Edgar  L.  Hewett. 

.       Nicholas  Roerich 


The  Joy  op  Art  in  Russia— I      . 

Fifteen  Illustrations. 

The  Russian  Ballet Frances  R.  Grant 

Four  Illustrations. 

Nationalism  in  Russian  Music 

Russian  Literature — General  Characteristics  .... 


I 


Notes  from  the  New  York  Galleries 

Four  Illustrations. 

Current  Notes  and  Comments  . 

One  Illustration. 

Book  Critiques 


Alexis  Kail 
Alexander  Kaun 
Helen  Comstock 


5i 

69 

78 
83 
91 

95 

97 


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Entered  at  the  Post  Office  at  Washington,  D.  C,  as  second-class  mail  matter.     Acceptance  for  mailing  at  special  rate  of  postage 
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Copyright,  1922,  by  the  Art  and  Archaeology  Press. 


493706 


Mizguir,  the  young  Tartar  merchant  in  "Snegourotchka."  Russian  fairy  opera.  Book  by  Ostrovsky  on  an  old 
Russian  folk-story  of  "The  Snow  Maiden."  Music  by  Rimsky-Korsakoff.  Painted  by  N.  Roerich  for 
Chicago  Grand  Opera  Company  production. 


K3$ 


ARCHAEOLOGY 

The  Arts  Throughout  the  Ages 


Volume  XIII 


FEBRUARY,  1922 


Number  2 


THE  JOY  OF  ART  IN  RUSSIA 

i. 

By  Nicholas  Roerich 

[We  have  great  pleasure  in  publishing  this  article  by  the  world-famous  Russian  artist, 
Nicholas  Roerich,  which  doubtless  will  be  greatly  appreciated  by  our  readers.]— Ed. 


LITTLE  knowledge  brings  dusk 
with  it ;  great  knowledge  brings 
light.  Spurious  art  brings  the 
commonplace;  genuine  art  creates  joy 
of  spirit  and  that  power  on  which  the 
building  of  our  future  rests.  We  should 
now  firmly  establish  everything  that 
can  lead  Man  along  a  new  road.  As 
in  pre-historic  times  Paleolith  was  re- 
placed by  Neolith,  so  in  our  days  the 
"mechanical  civilization"  is  about  to 
be  replaced  by  culture  of  spirit.  The 
Druids  secretly  cherished  the  laws  of 
wisdom;  similar  to  that,  in  the  engen- 
dering kingdom  of  spirit,  attention  is 
tending  towards  knowledge  and  beauty, 
and  many  a  home  is  already  lighted  up 
by  that  sacred  fire;  many  are  united, 
each  of  them  a  creative  atom  in  the  new 
construction.  The  same  thought  springs 
up  in  different  countries  simultaneously, 

[51] 


like  a  strong  plant  sending  forth  many 
new  shoots  from  the  same  root. 

Friends,  you  would  like  to  hear 
about  art  in  Russia?  You  seem  to  be 
interested  in  it  and  kindly  expectant. 
You  are  right. 

The  Russian  nation  has  always  been 
closely  attached  to  art.  Since  the  times 
of  yore  all  its  modes  of  life  have  been 
saturated  with  self-expression  of  true 
art.  The  ancient  heroic  epos,  the 
folk-lore,  the  national  string-  and  wind- 
instruments,  laces,  carved  wood,  ikons, 
ornamental  details  in  architecture, — 
all  of  these  speak  of  genuine,  natural 
artistic  aspirations.  And,  even  at  the 
present  moment,  all  exhibitions,  con- 
certs, theatres  and  public  lectures  are 
invariably  crowded. 

It  was  but  a  short  while  back  that 
Kuprin  wrote : 


"The  VarEngian  Sea."     Painted  in  Petrograd,  1909,  by  N.  Roerich. 


"Russian  villages  welcome  the  in- 
tellectuals. They  have  become  more 
kindred  to  the  peasants'  conception. 
A  new-comer  from  among  the  students, 
man  or  woman,  is  trustfully  asked  to 
teach  small  village  children,  while  their 
elder  brothers  and  sisters  are  keen  on 
learning  not  only  music,  but  foreign 
languages  as  well.  Wandering  pho- 
tographers are  met  with  lots  of  orders. 
A  painter  who  is  able  to  produce  on  a 
piece  of  canvas  or  of  linoleum  an  ap- 
proximate likeness  to  a  human  face  can 
rely  upon  a  long  life  of  safety  and  com- 
fort in  the  country.  I  say  safety  because 
the  village  bestows  its  sincere  guardian- 
ship upon  these  strange  artists." 

I,  too,  could  point  out  numberless 
instances  of  love  of  art  and  of  enlight- 
enment among  the  simple  Russian 
people. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  cover  in  one 
article  every  section  of  the  vast  horizon 
commanded  by  Russian  art.  But  it  is 
possible  to  point  out  the  milestones,  and 
to  map  out  the  main  roads  which  will 
lead  us  from  our  day  into  the  depth  of 
the  ages. 

Besides  the  modern  Russian  mas- 
ters— Serov,  Trubetzkoy,    Vrubel,  So- 


mov,  Bakst — you  have  shown  your 
appreciation  of  our  outstanding  na- 
tionalists, such  as  Riepin  and  Surikov, 
Nesterov  and  Levitan.  You  have  also 
come  across  the  names  of  old  masters; 
the  classic  Brulov,  the  religious  genius 
Ivanov,  the  interpreter  of  national  life 
Venezianov,  and  our  great  portrait 
painters  Levitzky  and  Borovikovsky. 
But  it  is  necessary  all  the  same  to 
point  out  the  characteristic  national 
features  and  movements  of  Russian 
art  from  a  bird's  eye  point  of  view,  as 
it  were. 

What  shall  we  cast  away  from  our  art 
in  marking  each  successive  step  of  de- 
velopment? What  shall  we  adopt? 
Which  way  shall  we  turn? — towards 
the  new  interpretation  of  classicism,  or 
to  the  antique  sources?  Shall  we  sink 
into  the  depths  of  primitivism,  or 
find  new  light  in  the  "  Neo-national- 
ism,"  with  its  fragrance  of  Indian 
herbs,  its  spells  of  the  Finnish  land,  its 
inspiring  thoughts  of  the  so-called 
Slavophilism? 

We  are  deeply  excited  over  the  ques- 
tion— Whence  is  coming  the  Joy  of 
Art?  For  it  is  coming,  although  it 
has  been  less  perceptible  of  late.     Its 


[S3] 


ART  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


re-sounding,    approaching   strides    are 
tangible  already. 

Amongst  the  recent  achievements  one 
is  notable  and  bright:  the  under- 
standing of  the  decorative,  of  the 
adorning  nature  of  art,  is  growing 
rapidly.  The  original  purpose  and 
meaning  of  art  is  again  coming  to  the 
fore,  rightly  understood  as  the  em- 
bellishment of  life — which  makes  the 
artist  and  the  on-looker,  the  master  and 
the  owner  join  in  the  ecstasy  of  creation 
and  exult  in  its  enjoyment. 

We  have  reasons  to  hope  that  these 
modern  aspirations  will  fling  away  the 
dead  weights  forcibly  attached  to  art 
in  the  last  century.  Already  the  word 
"to  adorn"  seems  to  be  acquiring  its 
renewed  meaning  among  the  masses. 

Very  valuable  is  the  fact  that  the 
cultured  part  of  society  is  just  now 
keen  on  studying  the  birth-springs  of 
art:  it  is  through  theseP crystal-like 
springs,  that  the  great  value  of  embel- 
lishing human  life  will  be  realized 
again.  It  may  acquire  quite  a  new 
style  and  lead  to  a  new  era  beyond  the 
limits  of  our  present  imagination;  but 
one  thing  is  certain,  that  that  new  era 
in  its  intensity  of  exultation  will  be 
akin  to  the  first  human  ecstasies. 

But  flowers  do  not  grow  on  ice.  In 
order  to  mould  that  new  era  it  is  neces- 
sary that  society  should  follow  the 
artists;  people  should  become  their 
co-workers.  The  public  mind,  assisting 
art  work  by  prompting  its  creations 
through  the  demand  for  exhibitions,  art 
galleries  and  private  collections,  will 
be  that  warmth  without  which  no  roots 
can  produce  plants.  Happily,  as  I  say, 
the  interest  of  the  cultured  public  is 
veering  round  to  the  dusk  of  the  past 
ages,  in  the  midst  of  which  gems  are 
sparkling :  either  costly  or  modest  gems, 
but  equally  great  in  the  purity  of 
thought  which  has  given   them   their 


material  form.  We  are  trying  to  dis- 
cern what  we  would  see  if  we  were 
transferred  into  the  depth  of  those 
times:  would  we  be  amazed  at  the 
wisdom  of  an  innate  artistic  instinct,  or 
would  we  find  just  gifted  children 
around  us?  No;  we  would  find  not 
children,  but  wise  men. 

We  are  not  going  into  the  details  of 
various  ancient  art  creations;  such 
measurements  and  explanations  might 
offend  both  their  masters  and  their 
modern  possessors.  It  is  the  impression 
of  harmony  that  is  essential  in  art ;  and 
that  what  still  bears  the  fascination  of 
beauty  and  purity,  of  nobility  and  of 
singularity,  should  be  counted  as  art, 
and  need  not  fear  any  libel.  As  it  is, 
judging  art  creations  of  our  days,  many 
of  us  are  given  to  dwell  on  their  flaws 
and  drawbacks.  This  is  a  sign  of  youth 
with  a  country  where  it  is  done. 

Let  us  look  at  the  Thirties  of  the  last 
century  and  further  back  still.  Much 
of  it  stirs  our  heart-strings;  the  noble 
bloom  of  the  epoch  of  Alexander  I,  the 
truly  decorative  sparkle  of  the  times  of 
Catherine  the  Great  and  of  Elizabeth 
(XVIII)  and  the  amazing  conglomera- 
tions of  art  in  Peter  the  Great's  time. 
Happily,  a  great  deal  of  it  all  has 
escaped  ruin  and  vividly  speaks  for 
itself. 

What  is  by  far  less  known  and  under- 
stood are  the  "pre-Peter"  times.  Our 
conception  of  these  had  been  out  of  gear 
for  a  long  time  due  to  the  admixture  of 
"self-made"  knowledge— which  is  al- 
ways the  result  of  little  knowledge.  The 
safest  way  to  study  the  homes  and 
churches  of  the  pre-Peter  epoch  is  to 
transfer  into  it  in  our  minds  the 
treasures  from  our  museums,  the  objects 
of  jewelry,  clothing,  textures,  ikons,  etc. 

Almost  the  highest  place  amongst 
the  ancient  Russian  art  creations  should 
be  given  to  the  ikons — applying  this 


[55] 


Building  of  Ancient  Russian  "Warship,"  X  Century,  by  N.  Roerich.     Now  in  Oakland  Art  Association  Museum. 


definition  on  a  large  scale.  The  faces 
on  these  "wonder-working"  paintings 
are  magically  impressive.  There  is  a 
great  understanding  of  the  effects  of  the 
silhouette-painting  in  them,  and  a  deep 
sense  of  proportion  in  the  treating  of 
the  back-grounds.  The  faces  of  Christ, 
of  the  Virgin,  of  some  beloved  Saints — 
they  seem  actually  to  radiate  the  power 
attributed  to  them:  The  Face  of  Judg- 
ment, The  Face  of  Goodness,  The  Face 
of  Joy,  The  Face  of  Sorrow,  The  Face 
of  Mercy,  The  Face  of  Omnipotence. 
Yet — still  The  Same  One  Face,  quiet 
in  its  features,  fathomless  in  the  depth 
of  colcring.  The  Wonder-working  Face. 
No  one  dared  until  recently  to  regard 
the  ikons  purely  from  the  artistic  point 


of  view,  and  only  then  a  powerful  deco- 
rative spirit  has  been  discovered  in 
them  at  last— in  the  place  of  naiveness 
and  crudeness  which  were  supposed  to 
be  their  characteristics  hitherto.  A 
genuine  decorative  instinct  gave  their 
unknown  creators,  in  their  days,  the 
complete  mastership  even  over  the 
largest  surfaces  of  church  walls.  We 
are  still  in  the  dark  about  the  proximity 
of  that  instinct  in  regard  to  actual 
technique  and  knowledge,  but  the 
"specialists'  "  indifferent  descriptions 
of  these  wall-  and  canvas-ikons  often 
call  forth  feelings  of  pain  and  offense 
for  those  works. 

It    is    not    sufficient    to    sense    the 
exulting  audacity  of  color  in  the  wall 


[56] 


Yaroslavna's  Tower  Room.     Scene  for  Prince  Igor;  Diaghileff's  Paris  and  London  production,  1914,  by  N.  Roerich. 


paintings  of  the  churches  in  Yaroslavl 
and  Rostov?  I  Just  have  a  good  look  at 
the  interior  of  John  the  Forerunner  in 
Yaroslavl.  What  harmonies  of  the 
most  transparent  azure  with  bright 
ochre!  What  atmosphere  of  ease  and 
peace  in  the  greyish  emerald  of  the 
verdure,  and  how  well  it  blends  with 
the  reddish  and  brownish  garments  of 
the  figures.  Serene  Archangels  with 
deep  yellow  haloes  round  their  heads 
flying  across  the  warm-looking  sky, 
their  white  robes  looking  only  just  a 
shade  colder  against  it.  And  the  gold : 
it  never  hurts  your  eye,  it  is  so  perfectly 
placed  and  so  perfectly  balanced. 
Truly,  these  paintings  are  the  daintiest, 
the  finest  silk  tectures  befitted  to  clothe 


1 


the  walls  of  The  Forerunner ! 


In  the  labyrinth  of  the  church 
passages  in  Rostov  every  one  of  the 
tiny  doorways  startles  you  with  un- 
expected beauty  of  color  harmonies?^ 
Softly  outlined  human  figures  are  dis- 
cerned looking  at  you  through  the 
strangely-transparent  pale  ash-grey  of 
the  walls.  In  some  places  you  seem  to 
feel  the  heat  of  the  glowing  red  and 
chestnut  chords;  in  others,  peace  comes 
breathing  from  the  greenish-blue  masses 
of  color;  and,  suddenly,  you  stop 
short — as  before  a  severe  word  from  the 
Scripture — faced  by  a  shadowy  figure 
in  ochre. 

You  feel  that  all  this  has  been  created 
consciously,  not  casually;  and  that  you 
have  been  brought  to  that  house  of  God 
for  some  reason,  and  that  you  shall 


[57] 


ART  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


keep  the  impression  of  its  beauty  and 
benefit  by  it  more  than  once  hence.     _ 

These  works — to  quote  from  an  old 
book  of  the  XVII  century — have  been 
painted  "with  honest  mind  and  decent 
purpose,  and  with  noble  love  for  embel- 
lishment, for  the  people  to  see  them- 
selves here  as  standing  before  the  face  of 
The  Highest."  ?. 

When  the  later-on  famous  "wonder- 
working" ikon  of  the  Virgin  Iverskaya 
was  to  be  painted,  the  planks  for  its 
foundation  were  bathed  in  consecrated 
water,  an  exceptionally  arduous  service 
was  held,  the  paints  were  mixed  with 
petrified  remains  of  some  Saints,  and 
the  painter,  while  at  that  work,  con- 
sumed food  only  on  Saturdays  and  on 
Sundays.  The  ecstasy  of  painting  an 
ikon  was  great  in  those  days,  and  it  was 
a  real  happiness  when  the  lot  befell 
a  true  artist,  elated  by  the  eternal 
spiritual  beauty  which  he  was  toy 
embody. 

Some  splendid  laws  of  the  great 
Italians  can  be  traced  in  the  Russian 
wall  paintings,  applied  from  a  purely 
decorative  point  of  view.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  Far  East  has  poured,  through 
the  Tartars,  a  tinge  of  wilfulness  into 
our  old  art  works.  Towards  the  Tsars' 
period  of  our  history  (16th  cent.)  the 
decorative  element  in  every  day  life 
came  to  its  highest.  Whether  temples, 
palaces,  or  small  private  dwellings,  they 
all  clearly  reflected  a  perfect  sense  of 
proportion  through  which  the  structure 
itself  blended  with  its  ornamentations 
into  one.  Looking  at  them  you  find 
nothing  whatever  to  argue  against ! 

The  noble  character  of  the  arts  that 
flourished  in  Novgorod  and  in  Pskov — 
on  "The  Great  Water-way"  leading 
from  the  Baltic  into  the  Black  sea — was 
saturated  with  the  best  elements  of 
Hansa  culture.  The  lion's  head  on  the 
coins    of    the    Novgorod    Republic    is 


extremely  like  the  head  of  St.  Mark. 
Was  it  not  the  northern  giant's  dream 
of  the  distant  southern  queen  of  the 
seas,  Venice?  The  now  white-washed 
walls  of  Novgorod — the  "Great  Town 
which  was  its  own  Master,"  to  quote 
its  ancient  name  in  full — look  as  if  they 
could  very  likely  have  borne  on  them 
paintings  of  the  Hansa  character. 
Novgorod,  famous  for,  and  wise  with, 
the  incessant  raids  of  his  "Freemen," 
might  have  turned  his  face  away  from 
a  casual  wanderer, — but  only  through 
wilfulness  and  not  from  shame :  there  is 
not  one  stain  on  the  fame  of  the  famous 
old  town;  it  has  kept  many  of  its  old 
features  even  until  the  XIX  century. 

It  is  different  with  the  influences  of 
the  Far  East.  The  Mongol  invasions 
have  left  such  a  hatred  behind  them 
that  their  artistic  elements  are  always 
neglected.  It  is  forgotten  that  the 
mysterious  cradle  of  Asia  has  produced 
these  quaint  people  and  has  enwrapped 
then  in  the  gorgeous  veils  of  China, 
Tibet  and  Hindustan.  Russia  has  not 
only  suffered  from  the  Tartar  swords, 
but  has  also  heard  through  their  jing- 
ling the  wonder-tales  known  to  the 
clever  Greeks  and  the  intelligent  Ara- 
bians who  wandered  along  the  Great 
Road  from  the  Normans  to  the  East. 

The  Mongol  manuscripts  and  the 
annals  of  the  foreign  envoys  of  those 
days  tell  us  of  an  unaccountable  mix- 
ture of  cruelty  and  refinement  with  the 
great  nomads.  The  best  artists  and 
masters  were  to  be  found  at  the  head- 
quarters of  the  Tartar  Khans. 

Besides  the  adopted  view-point  of  the 
text-books  there  can  be  another  one: 
It  was  the  Tartars'  contempt  and 
cruelty  that  taught  the  Russian.  Princes 
to  give  up  their  feuds  and  to  rally 
against  their  mutual  oppressors;  it  was 
the  Tartars  that  taught  them  the  om- 
nipotence of  merciless  victors;  but,  at 


[59] 


"Rostoff  the  Great"  (from  collection  of  Dr.  W.  Porter),  by  N.  Roerich. 


the  same  time,  those  nomads  brought 
from  Asia  ancient  culture  and  spread  it 
all  over  the  land  which  they  had  pre- 
viously devastated. 

It  is  more  painful  to  think  of  the 
ancient  weapons  of  the  Russians  them- 
selves with  which  they  ruined  in  their 
quarrels  each  other's  towns  even  before 
the  Tartars  invaded  them.  The  white 
walls  of  the  Russian  temples  and 
towers — "shining  as  white  as  cheese," 
to  quote  from  the  ancient  annals — 
suffered  many  a  hard  blow  from  kindred 
clans. 

Walking  through  the  plains  beyond 
the  outskirts  of  Rome,  one  is  unable  to 
imagine  that  it  was  just  in  those  now 


empty  places  that  Caesar's  capital  was 
unfolding  itself,  giving  gorgeous  shelter 
to  some  ten  million  inhabitants.  It  is 
equally  unbelievable  to  imagine  the 
gorgeousness  of  Kiev — "The  Mother 
of  Russian  Towns" — where  Prince 
Yaroslav  the  Wise  entertained  foreign 
guests  from  East  and  West.  The  rem- 
nants of  the  wall  paintings  in  Kiev?s 
cathedrals,  all  these  large-eyed,  serene 
figures  of  world-wise  men  interpreted 
by  the  brush  of  real  artists,  give  us  a 
glimpse  of  what  art  actually  meant  to 
the  Russians  of  those  times  (about 
1000-1200  A.  D.)- 

A  few  years  ago  there  were  excavated 
in    Kiev    some    remnants    of    ancient 


[60] 


Church  in  Sousdal  (XVI  Century),  by  N.  Roerich. 


walls,  frescoes,  tiles  and  ornaments; 
these  are  believed  to  be  fragments  of 
the  Princes'  court-yards.  I  have  seen 
some  of  the  exquisite  frescoes,  and  I 
found  them  bearing  the  features  of  art 
of  Asia  Minor.  The  structure  of  the 
stone  walls  in  itself  indicates  a  special 
quaint  manner  of  technique,  which 
usually  marks  the  periods  of  great  love 
for  architecture.  I  think  that  the 
Rogere  Palace  in  Palermo  gives  an  idea 
of  the  palaces  of  Kiev. 

It  was  really  a  combination  of  North 
and  South:  the  metal  sheen  of  the 
Scandinavian  style  beaded  with  the 
pearls  of  Byzantium  made  the  ancient 
city  that  place  of  beauty  which  led 
brothers  to  fight  for  it.    The  astound- 


ing tones  of  enamel,  the  refinement  of 
miniatures,  the  vastness  and  dignity 
of  the  temples,  the  wonders  of  metal 
work,  the  masses  of  hand-woven  tex- 
tures, the  admixture  of  the  finest  laws 
of  the  Roman  style — all  these  melted 
into  one  in  giving  Kiev  its  noble  ele- 
gance. Men  of  Yaroslav's  and  Vladi- 
mir times  must  have  had  a  very  de- 
veloped sense  of  beauty,  or  the  things 
left  by  them  would  not  have  been  so 
wonderful. 

Note  those  paragraphs  from  the 
heroic  epos  where  the  people's  mind 
dwells  on  the  details  of  ordinary  life, 
leaving  alone  for  a  while  the  achieve- 
ments of  heroism.  Here  is  a  descrip- 
tion of  a  private  house — a   "terem": 


[61] 


ri 


•a 

ft 
o 


ft 


ART  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


Around  the  terem — an  iron  fence; 

Its  spikes — topped  with  carving; 

Each  one  of  them  crowned  with  a  pearl. 

The  gate-way — floored  with  whale  tooth. 

Over  the  gate-way — about  seventy  ikons. 

In  the  middle  of  the  court — the  terems  do  rise, 

The  terems  with  their  gilt  domes; 

The  first  door-way — in  wrought  iron  work, 

The  middle  door-way — in  glass; 

The  third  door-way — latticed. 

One  can  trace  in  this  description  a 
likeness  to  the  images  on  the  Dakian 
structures  on  Trojan  columns. 

And,  here  is  a  description  of  horse- 
men: 

Their  clothes  are  of  scarlet  cloth. 

Their  leather  belts  are  pierced  with  wrought  metal 

clasps. 
Their  caps  are  black  and  pointed, 
In  black  fur,  with  golden  crowns. 
Their  feet  are  shod  with  precious  green  leather, 
Tilted  at  the  toes  like  awls; 
The  heels  are  pointed  too: 
There's  room  enough  for  an  egg  to  roll  round  the 

toes, 
There's  room  enough  for  a  sparrow  to  fly  round 

the  heels. 

This  is  an  exact,  although  poetic, 
description  of  the  kind  of  garments 
that  can  be  seen  in  the  Byzantine  wall- 
paintings. 

And,  here  again  is  the  picture  of 
the  hero  himself : 

The  helmet  on  his  cap  shines  like  fire. 

His  plated  shoes  are  in  seven  shades  of  silk. 

Each  has  a  golden  tack  in  it; 

Each  toe  has  a  precious  emerald  in  it. 

On  his  shoulders — a  coat  of  black  ermine, 

Of  black  ermine  brought  from  over  the  seas, 

Covered  with  embossed  green  velvet. 

Each  button-hole  has  a  bird  woven  in. 

And  each  golden  button — a  furious  beast  cast  in. 

I  would  suggest  to  regard  such  a 
description  not  from  the  view-point  of 
philological  curiosity,  but  as  a  piece  of 
direct  realistic  information.  The  de- 
tails are  an  archaeologically-true  evi- 
dence. Thus,  in  this  quaint  statement 
we  can  see  a  fragment  of  a  great  cul- 
ture,— one  that  was  not  enforced,  not 
strange  to  the  simple  people:  the  un- 
sophisticated folk,  obviously,  had  no 
objection  to  it  whatever :  they  spoke  of 
it  without  the  scorn  of   the    "lower" 


classes  for  "the  elect,"  but  freely  ex- 
pressed a  genuine  pride  in  what  was 
beautiful  and  elegant  to  their  own  senses 
as  well.  In  those  days  the  elaborate 
arrangements  of  the  Princes'  hunts, 
the  merry  feasts  they  gave — in  the 
course  of  which  they  would  put  a  num- 
ber of  wise  questions  before  their 
foreign  guests, — the  nobility  in  the 
construction  of  new  cities, — all  this 
blended  together  in  harmony.  Such 
life  did  not  jar  on  the  poetic  mind  of 
the  simple  people;  and  it  is  evident 
that  wise  initiators  of  art  have  in- 
habited and  ruled  The  Mother  of  Rus- 
sian Towns. 

Here  is  a  quotation  from  the  first 
historical  annals  (the  exact  language  of 
which  remains  untranslatable,  being  a 
mixture  of  Russian  with  the  Old  Sla- 
vonic which  in  itself  makes  it  a  piece 
of  poetry  of  the  XI  century)  : 

"Yaroslav  founded  Kiev  the  Great,v 
and  its  golden  gates  with  it.  Also  the 
Church  of  St.  Sophia,  also  the  Church 
of  Annunciation  upon  the  Golden  Gates, 
also  the  Monastery  of  St.  George  and 
St.  Irene. 

"Loving  the  laws  of  Church  and 
being  a  master  in  books,  he  read  them 
by  day  and  by  night,  and  wrote  them 
too,  thus  sowing  book- words  in  the 
hearts  of  true  men,  which  we  now  reap. 
For,  books  are  rivers  that  carry  wis- 
.dom  throughout  the  world,  and  are  as 
deep  as  rivers.  Also,  Yaroslav  lov- 
ingly embellished  the  churches  with 
gold  and  silver  vessels,  and  his  heart 
rejoiced  upon  it." 

Yaroslav 's  exulting  over  the  gor- 
geousness  of  St.  Sophia  temple  is  im- 
measurably removed  from  the  exclama- 
tions of  our  contemporary  savages  at 
the  sight  of  bright  colors.  Yaroslav 's 
was  the  exultation  of  a  man  who  sensed 
in  his  creation  a  monument  of  art  that 
would   live  for  ages.      One  can  envy 


[63] 


rf 


.n 
'9 
o 

s-, 

o 

pq 


A 


> 
o 

o 
Ph 

H 

B 
H 


ART  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


and  admire  the  modes  of  life  where 
such  art  was  in  demand. 

A  question  may  arise:  How  could 
Kiev  have  become  a  centre  of  culture 
at  the  very  start  of  Russian  his- 
tory? 

But,  do  we  possess  any  knowledge 
about  the  foundation  of  Kiev?  That 
city  tempted  Prince  Oleg,  the  Varen- 
gian — a  man  of  the  world,  a  man  of 
experience.  Before  him,  the  Princes 
Askold  and  Dir  coveted  Kiev,  and  so 
did  many  other  Normans .  '  'And  many 
Varengians  foregathered  and  came  into 
possession  of  the  Slavonic  Land."  It 
should  be  noted  that  there  are  no  indi- 
cations anywhere  in  the  lines  of  the 
annals  about  Askold  and  Dir  being 
zm-cultured.  Thus,  the  facts  about  the 
foundation  of  Kiev  are  really  pushed 
back  into  the  depths  of  the  legendary 
times.  Let  us  not  despise  tradition, 
either ;  it  says  that  the  Apostle  Andrew 
has  visited  Kiev:  why  should  an  apos- 
tle come  to  virgin  forests?  But  his 
appearance  in  Kiev  becomes  quite  com- 
prehensible if  one  thinks  of  the  secret 
cults  of  Astarte  which  have  been  re- 
cently traced  near  Kiev.  These  cults 
take  us  back  to  the  XVI-XVII  centuries 
before  Christ.  A  large  centre  of  mental 
interest  ought  to  have  existed  already 
in  order  to  shelter  such  cults. 

It  is  a  comfort  to  know  that  all  of  the 
Great  Kiev  is  still  resting  within  the 
ground  in  peace,  un-excavated.  There 
are  glorious  discoveries  to  come  yet. 
They  will  open  almost  the  only  gate  into 
the  depths  of  the  past  of  our  land.  Even 
the  Scandinavian  period  and  the  Bronze 
period  will  have  a  light  thrown  on 
them  through  those  gates. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  joy  of 
art  has  grown  in  Kiev  side  by  side 
with  the  neighboring  Scandinavian  cul- 
ture, without  being  engendered  by  the 
latter    altogether.      Why    should    the 


birth  of  the  Russian  Scandinavia  be 
attributed  entirely  to  the  legendary 
Prince  Rurik?  The  ancient  annals 
mention  a  fact  which  is  of  great  sig- 
nificance, yet  it  has  never  been  picked 
up  as  a  key : 

"The  Russians  pushed  the  Varen- 
gians beyond  the  sea  and  would  not 
pay  duty  to  them."  Now,  if  the  expul- 
sion of  the  Varengians  took  place  be- 
fore Rurik 's  name  came  in  at  all,  when 
did  their  first  appearance  in  the  Russian 
land  take  place?  It  is  quite  possible 
that  the  Russo-Scandinavian  era  may 
have  been  rooted  in  the  depths  of  the 
ages. 

We  have  a  startling  illustration  of 
carelessness  in  the  "historical"  text- 
books on  the  subject : 

The  famous  phrase  attributed  to  the 
old  Russians  which  is  meant  in  the  text- 
books as  a  wholesale  invitation  from 
the  Russian  land  to  the  Varengians 
"from  over  the  sea"  runs  thus: 

"Our  land  is  large  and  prolific,  but 
there  is  no  order  in  it.  Come  and  rule 
over  us."  What  is  usually  given  as  a 
sequence  to  this  invitation  are  the 
following  lines :  "  There  came  the  Varen- 
gian  Rurik  with  his  brothers  Sineus  and 
Truvor  (800  A.  D.)." 

Now,  in  the  Scandinavian  annals, 
the  words  "sinhuus"  and  "truver" 
mean,  "his  household"  and  "his  true 
guard."  Therefore  I  would  sug- 
gest a  different  explanation  of  the 
famous  phrase:  very  probable,  it  has 
found  its  utterance  not  on  the  part  of 
the  ancient  Russians  themselves,  but 
among  the  Scandinavian  colonists  who 
inhabited  the  banks  of  the  northern 
river  Volhov.  It  is  they  that  must 
have  asked  Rurik  from  behind  the 
Ladoga  lake  (which  is  very  much  like 
a  sea — where  he,  most  likely,  used  to 
come  from  Scandinavia  for  hunting), 
to  come  and  organise  a  military  force 


[65] 


'The  Call  of  the  Bells."     Old  Pskov  (XVII  Century).     By  N.  Roerich. 


for  them.  And  that  men — with  his 
household  and  his  guards,  with  his 
means  and  his  probable  love  of  ad- 
venture— came  to  the  asking  of  his 
compatriots.  By  and  by,  his  kind  of 
"princes,"  the  warriors  hired  in  the 
North  of  Russia,  were  attracted  by  the 
Kiev  Principality  where  the  role  of  a 
"prince"  was  more  than  that  of  a 
warrior  and  included  the  position  of  a 
statesman. 

In  the  tenth  century,  northern 
culture  saturated  with  its  influence  the 
whole  of  Europe.  No  one  denies  that 
the  Scandinavian  epoch  forms  one  of  the 
most  attractive  artistic  problems.  The 
monumental  art  of  the  Scandinavians 
is  exceptionally  serene  and  noble.  For 
a  long  time  it  was  only  the  skiffs  with 
their  motley  sails  and  carved  dragons 
that  used  to  bring  the  elements  of  The 
Wonderful  with  them  into  Russia. 
Our  people  adopted  these  with  open 
hearts.     There  is  no  reason  to  regard 


the  Northerners  as  rough  conquerors  of 
the  original  Novgorod ;  in  any  case,  they 
lived  in  a  way  which  made  them  kindred 
to  art — a  feature  which  was  a  powerful 
factor  in  their  blending  with  the  in- 
habitants of  the  Russian  plains  who  had 
artistic  imagination  innate  in  them. 

We  know  that  the  Varengians 
brought  with  them  the  ideas  of  human 
deities;  but,  before  that,  did  the  Slavs 
not  deify  the  powers  of  nature— one  of 
the  most  poetic  forms  of  religion? 
This  was  the  cradle  of  their  creative 
inspirations. 

Going  further  into  the  depths  of  ages, 
we  find  the  last  frontier  of  realistic 
entities.  Apparently,  only  dust  seems 
to  be  left  beyond  those  frontiers,  and 
an  amateur  is  put  hard  to  believe  that 
it  is  not  merely  a  theory  of  dull  archae- 
ology that  we  are  asked  to  adopt.  But, 
in  reality,  there  survived  some  atoms  of 
fascinating  gorgeousness  that  did  live 
in  the  past.     Now  it  is  time  for  every- 


[66] 


Winter  Group  in  "Snegourotchka."     By  N.  Roerich. 


one  to  realise  that  art  has  existed  not 
only  where  this  is  obvious  to  all;  but 
that  much,  much  is  hidden  from  us  by 
the  veils  of  time.  And  what  seems  dull 
now  will  appear  one  day  lit  up  by  the 
joys  of  penetration.  The  onlooker  will 
become  a  creator.  Herein  lies  the 
fascination  both  of  the  Past  and  of  the 
Future.  He  who  cannot  grasp  the 
Past  is  unable  to  imagine  the  Future. 

The  fantastic  bas-reliefs  on  the 
northern  rocks,  the  tall  hillocks  along 
the  trade-routes,  the  long  daggers  and 
the  attire  so  rich  in  design  make  one 
love  northern  life ;  tfiey  awaken  respect 
for  the"  primitive  forms  of  beauty 
beyond  which  our  imagination  sinks  in 
the  depths  of  the  bronze  patines. 

A  great  deal  of  art  can  be  sensed 
even  in  the  mysterious  and  dusky 
periods  which  stand  back  furthest  from 
us.  Can  the  animal  Finnish  phantas- 
magoria be  astrange  to  art?  Do  the 
bewitched  forms  of  the  far  East  escape 
artistic  penetration?  Are  the  first 
adaptations  from  the  antique  world 
hideous  in  the  hands  of  the  Scythians? 
Are    the    ornaments    of    the    Siberian 


nomads  merely  coarse?  No;  these 
finds  are  kindred  to  art,  and  one  can 
envy  the  clarity  of  conception  with  the 
ancients.  They  incarnated  symbols 
that  meant  to  them  so  much,  and 
created  well-defined,  distinct,  for  mani- 
fold artistic  forms. 

It  is  in  the  mysterious  cobweb  of  the 
Bronze  period  that  we  have  to  look 
round.  Every  day  brings  with  it  new 
conclusions.  We  can  discern  a  whole 
pageant  of  peoples.  Beyond  the  shin- 
ing, gold-clad  Byzantines  we  see  the 
motley  crowds  of  Finno-Turks  pass  by. 
Deeper  still  in  time  majestically  come 
the  gorgeous  Aryans.  Still  deeper, 
there  are  only  the  extinguished  bon- 
fires of  unknown  wanderers;  these  are 
numberless. 

It  is  the  gifts  which  all  of  these  have 
left  for  us  that  are  nowadays  building 
up  the  Neo-nationalism.  The  younger 
generations  will  heed  it  and  will  become 
strong  and  sane  through  it.  If  the 
blunted  modern  nationalism  of  art  is  to 
be  turned  into  a  bewitching  neo- 
nationalism,  the  foundation  stone  of 
the  latter  will  be   the   great   ancient 


[67] 


Boyars  in  Summer  in  "Snegourotchka."     By  N.  Roerich. 


world  in  its  genuine  conceptions  of 
truth  and  beauty.  This  truth  and 
beauty  will  find  one  day  its  equal  in 
the  great  future. 

The  remotest  annals  of  the  Christian 
era  are  unable  to  convey  the  fascina- 
tions of  the  effaced  cult  of  Nature.  The 
so-called  "animal"  in  everyday  life, 
the  devilish' '  in  merry  making,  the 
"unseemly"  songs  described  by  the 
chronicler  of  the  ancient  times  in  Rus- 
sia, should  not  be  swallowed  whole- 
sale as  such:  the  chronicler  was  an 
ordained  person,  and  a  partial  point  of 
view  was  unavoidable  in  his  case. 
Church  did  not  bring  art  with  it :  it  only 
rested  its  foundation  upon  it;  and, 
although  it  created  some  new  forms,  it 
crushed  the  other,  equally  beautiful, 
ones. 

All  the  certainty  of  assertion  ends 
for  us  with  the  Scandinavian  period. 
What  remains  of  the  ages  that  preceded 
it  gives  us  but  approximate  indications. 
We  can  only  see  that  objects  of  beauty 
were  necessary  in  people's  life;  but  all 
actuality  as  to  the  exactness  of  cen- 
turies in  speaking  of  the  details  of 
home  life  escapes  our  searchlights. 


The  darkling  depths  of  the  Bronze 
and  Brass  periods  defy  us,  especially  if 
we  try  to  hold  on  to  the  Russian  soil. 
Yet,  such  countries  as  Greece  and 
Phoenicia  were  bound  to  have  made  an 
immense  impression  on  the  surround- 
ing populations.  Of  course,  the  tran- 
sitory moments  of  history  must  have 
effaced  the  importance  of  ornamental 
art  even  then,  as  it  also  happened  in 
Russia  at  the  period  of  the  internal 
feuds.  The  unskilful  use  of  a  new 
treasure  such  as  metal  must  have 
pushed  aside,  at  the  time,  real  artistic 
taste.  But  the  dark  periods  of  iron, 
bronze  and  brass  lasted  very  long,  and 
we  cannot  expect  any  clarity  from  our 
researches  there. 

In  the  direction  of  ornaments  the 
creative  spirit  of  the  ancients  has  been 
working  unfailingly.  The  love  for  sym- 
bolical design  was  enveloping  humanity 
like  a  safe-guarding  net :  and  a  modern 
uncultured  woman  of  the  tribes  Mordva 
or  Cheremissy  (in  the  East  of  Russia) 
has  no  conception  of  the  value  of  art 
which  has  reached  her  through  ages 
and  which  she  possesses  in  her  orna- 
ments. 

(To  be  continued.) 

[68] 


THE  RUSSIAN  BALLET 

By  Frances  R.  Grant 


TO  Europe,  Russia  of  yesteryear 
was  an  elusive  mystery.  Great, 
dark,  colorful,  it  seemed  a  con- 
stant enigma.  Behind  its  boundaries, 
Europe  sensed  a  constant  chaos — but 
it  was  a  chaos  of  reason,  such  as  pre- 
cedes the  rising  of  a  curtain. 

And  the  curtain  rose. 

It  was  in  1909  that  Paris  was  aroused 
to  sudden  attention  by  a  spectacle  of 
irridescent  splendor.  A  band  of  ardent 
Russians,  bringing  with  them  the  se- 
crets of  a  new  art,  colorful,  gorgeous, 
had  appeared  at  the  Theatre  du  Chate- 
let.  From  then  on  the  world  knew  the 
brilliance  that  was  the  Russian  Ballet's. 
: .  Over  the  Theatre  du  Chatelet,  there 
had  come  a  resplendent  change.  The 
season  before  it  had  sheltered  "The 
Adventures  of  Gavroche."  And  de- 
spite its  obviousness,  Parisian  crowds 
delighted  in  it.  Then  appeared  this 
inspired  troupe  from  Muscovy.  With 
a  zeal  incalculable  the  interior  of  the 
playhouse  was  transformed;  enthusi- 
asm worked  its  miracle  over  every- 
thing. And  when  the  season  of  the 
Diaghileff  Russian  Ballet  began,  even 
Paris  the  blase  sat  bewildered  before 
the  gorgeousness  of  "Prince  Igor," 
the  splendor  of  "Armide,"  the  charm  of 
"Chopiniana"  and  the  abandon  of  the 
"Bacchanale." 

But  the  opalesque  brilliance  of  the 
Diaghileff  ballet  had  not  been  created 
in  a  day,  or  even  in  a  season.  Behind 
it  lay  a  venerable  tradition  and  its  back- 
ground was  interwoven  in  the  history  of 
Russia. 

Dance  is  an  inseparable  part  of  the 
Russian  character.  It  is  as  definitely 
entwined  into  the  life  of  the  nation  as  is 
music  and  is  as  important  a  part  of  the 


people's  self-expression.  History  tells 
us  that  the  art  of  ballet  was  introduced 
into  Russia  as  early  as  the  reign  of 
Czar  Alexis  Mihailovitch.  Stirred  by  a 
desire  to  bring  the  ballet  to  his  country, 
Alexis  is  said  to  have  dispatched  his 
aide-de-camp  Col.  Van  Staden  to  the 
western  countries  to  order  a  troupe  of 
dancers  for  his  palace.  A  further  record 
has  it  that  in  1673-74  a  group  of  Ger- 
man and  Italian  dancers  came  to 
Alexis'  capital  and  diverted  the  court 
with  performances  of  "Orpheus  and 
Eurydice"  and  other  performances. 

The  actual  installation  of  the  ballet 
as  part  of  the  official  educational  sys- 
tem, however,  can  be  traced  to  the 
reign  of  the  Empress  Anna  Ivanovna, 
who  opened  the  Imperial  Ballet  School 
in  the  Royal  Palace  in  1737.  The 
French  ballet  master,  Landet,  was 
engaged  to  take  charge  of  the  work  and 
with  the  assistance  of  a  Neapolitan 
composer  and  musical  director,  the 
school  was  initiated.  Since  that  date 
the  Imperial  Russian  Ballet  School  has 
continued  its  undisturbed  course.  Sup- 
ported by  the  court,  the  choice  of 
Europe's  ballet  masters  and  teachers 
were  summoned  to  the  faculty  at 
princely  cost  and  the  art  of  ballet  there 
kept  abreast  with  the  highest  stand- 
ards. France,  Italy  and  Scandinavia 
contributed  its  teachers  to  the  school, 
and  the  leadership  of  the  faculty  passed 
among  men  whose  names  were  to  be 
conjured  with  in  the  contemporary 
progress  of  the  ballet. 

In  the  furtherance  of  their  training, 
the  pupils  of  the  school  were  inspired 
by  the  appearances  at  the  Imperial 
Ballet  of  the  leading  dancers  of  the 
world.    For  their  illumination  the  grow- 


[69] 


Anna  Pavlowa. 


ART  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


ing  generation  of  Russian  dancers  had 
the  privilege  of  seeing  such  dancers  as 
Fanny  Elssler,  Carlotta  Grisi,  Cerrito, 
Grimaldi  and  other  representatives  of 
that  halcyon  decade  of  ballet  dance  on 
the  Imperial  stage.  Nor  did  the  Impe- 
rial Ballet  School  have  to  look  long 
beyond  its  own  lists  in  emulation  of 
others;  it  flourished  apace  and  soon 
its  own  roster  was  illumined  by  famous 
names.  Under  the  leadership  of  Marius 
Petipa,  who  assumed  the  head  of  the 
ballet  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  the  personnel  of  the  school 
reflected  such  names  as  Mouravieva, 
Bogdanova,  Nikitina,  Kchechinskaja, 
Stoukolkin,  Kchesinsky,  Gerdt  Loukja- 
noff,  and  better  known  to  America, 
Karsavina,  Pavlowa,  the  Fokines,  Bolm, 
Mordkin  and  Nijinsky. 

It  would  be  well  to  glance  more 
closely  at  a  system  which  produced 
such  a  wealth  of  artists  of  transcendent 
quality.  The  Imperial  Ballet  School 
had  built  up  a  stalwart  curriculum, 
the  completion  of  which  might  well 
insure  and  test  the  student's  ability. 
Each  season,  some  twenty-three  stu- 
dents were  chosen  to  enter  its  course 
out  of  the  several  hundreds  who  annu- 
ally made  application.  Beginning  at 
the  age  of  ten  or  thereabouts,  the 
neophyte  would  devote  some  eight 
years  of  his  life  to  the  training,  and 
under  the  tutelage  and  supervision  of 
the  school,  obtained  not  only  his 
training  in  the  technique  of  his  art, 
but  a  correlative  education  and  culture 
which  could  but  serve  to  advance  his 
artistic  accomplishments.  Thus,  the 
Imperial  Ballet  School  provided  its 
graduate  with  a  knowledge  of  the 
dance,  but  gave  him  as  well  a  profound 
insight  into  the  traditions  of  the  cul- 
tured world. 

The  system,  by  its  very  thoroughness 
in  training  the  students  to  an  acute 


artistic  judgment,  provided  them  with 
a  weapon.  Keenly  subtle  to  the  possi- 
bilities of  their  own  art,  they  turned 
the  weapon  inwardly  to  probe  the 
limitations  of  the  contemporary  ballet. 

Those  who  have  followed  the  history 
of  the  ballet  know  that  in  the  nine- 
teenth century,  its  decadence  seemed 
imminent;  interest  in  it  seemed  des- 
tined to  languish.  Between  the  con- 
ceits of  the  French  school  and  the 
manifold  and  grotesque  acrobatics  of 
the  Italian  school,  it  seemed  hopelessly 
enmeshed  and  its  freedom  forever 
throttled.  In  Russia,  under  the  leader- 
ship of  Petipa,  and  of  necessity  infused 
with  foreign  influence,  it  assumed  the 
form  of  great  and  bedizened  spectacles, 
weighted  down  with  innumerable  con- 
ventions. 

It  was  at  the  end  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  even  as  early  as  1890,  that 
the  younger  artists,  products  of  the 
training  of  the  Imperial  Russian  Ballet 
School,  began  to  comprehend  the  irk- 
some yoke  under  which  the  ballet  was 
stagnating.  Hoping  to  liberate  it  from 
its  rigid  traditions,  they  formed  a  circle 
of  young  artists  all  infused  with  a  faith 
in  the  future  of  the  ballet,  yet  still 
uncertain  of  the  path  to  follow. 

At  this  time,  Isidora  Duncan,  who 
too  had  been  filled  with  the  inspiration 
to  rid  the  art  of  dance  forever  of  its 
imprisoning  rules  and  who  had  reverted 
to  the  Greeks  and  the  Classic  Dance 
for  her  inspirations,  began  the  tour  of 
Europe.  She  reached  Russia  about 
1907,  and  at  the  invitation  of  this 
group  of  younger  dancers,  gave  an 
exhibition  of  her  work. 

Enthused  still  further  by  her  art,  the 
band  of  the  faithful  in  Russia  began 
their  labors  for  the  liberation  of  the 
ballet.  In  their  vanguard  stood  Serge 
Diaghileff,  who  although  not  a  dancer 
himself,  was  a  writer  and  connoisseur, 


[71] 


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ART  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


who  was  heartiest  in  his  desire  to 
acquaint  the  rest  of  the  world  with  the 
billiance  of  Russian  artistic  traditions. 
A  graduate  of  the  Petrograd  Conserva- 
tory of  Music,  Diaghileff  had  for  long 
been  the  editor  of  the  art  monthly, 
The  World  of  A  rt.  In  1 906,  desirous  of  in- 
troducing Russian  paintings  to  Europe, 
he  had  gone  to  Paris,  rented  an  art 
gallery,  and  therein  exhibited  to  the 
astonished  Parisians  the  magnificent 
works  of  his  compatriots.  The  follow- 
ing year,  Diaghileff  again  went  back  to 
Paris,  this  time  presenting  some  of 
Russia's  musicians  in  concert  and 
giving  examples  of  his  country's  musical 
equipment.  It  was  natural  that  the 
circle  of  dancers  should  turn  to  him  for 
leadership. 

In  the  matter  of  artistry  there  stood 
at  th^  head  of  this  band,  Michel  Fokine, 
to  whose  vision  and  genius  much  of  the 
brilliant  conception  of  the  present-day 
Russian  ballet  is  due.  Fokine,  infused 
with  the  ideals  of  a  new  ballet,  had 
enlisted  the  finest  musicians  of  Russia 
as  well  as  her  painters  in  the  cause  of 
his  creations.  With  such  men  as 
Stravinsky,  Strauss,  Ravell  and  others 
he  talked  over  his  ideas  of  what  the 
chorographic  art  should  become,  and, 
aided  by  such  grandiose  talents  as 
Bakst,  Roerich,  Benois,  Seroff,  he  pro- 
ceded  to  create  that  magnificent  art 
which  was  to  astonish  Europe  and 
America.  No  longer  were  the  deaden- 
ing conventions  which  had  prevailed 
in  costume,  chorography,  and  music, 
to  stultify  this  art.  Alive  with  the  new 
freedom,  artists,  musicians  and  dancers 
combined  zealously  with  Fokine  in 
consummating  his  visions. 

Immediately,  however,  an  inimical 
bombardment  assailed  the  liberated 
ballet.  Stars  of  the  old  regime,  eagerly 
awaiting  their  pensions  and  languidly 
satisfied  with  their  past  triumphs,  re- 


fused to  join  its  ranks;  old  ballet  mas- 
ters; relatives  of  composers  to  whose 
works  Fokine  sought  to  provide  choro- 
graphic settings;  all  joined  the  line 
of  the  reactionaries  in  attacking  the 
Diaghileff  group,  which  had  in  the  face 
of  such  concentrated  opposition,  to 
delay  its  illuminating  debut. 

In  the  meantime,  however,  Adolph 
Bolm,  one  of  the  younger  cynosures 
and  lights  of  the  ballet,  having  grad- 
uated from  the  Imperial  Ballet  School 
with  honors,  had  determined  for  a  while 
to  feast  himself  with  the  arts  of  the 
rest  of  Europe.  Through  Austria, 
Russia,  France,  Italy  and  Germany  he 
traveled,  absorbing  himself  in  the  treas- 
ures of  Europe.  The  journey  left 
him  with  one  overwhelming  impression : 
the  utter  ignorance  of  the  rest  of  Europe 
of  Russia's  cultural  accomplishments. 
Immediately  upon  his  return  to  Russia, 
although  but  twenty-one,  he  organized 
a  company  of  some  twenty-eight  danc- 
ers, including  Pavlowa,  who  in  this 
company  made  her  first  appearance 
outside  of  Russia,  and  set  out  on  a 
month's  tournee.  Traveling  through 
parts  of  Russia,  Finland,  Sweden  and 
Germany,  the  company  met  with  con- 
stant and  stupendous  successes.  It 
was  this  tour  that  inspired  Diaghileff 
to  undertake  his  trip  to  Paris,  and  in 
1909  in  the  French  capital,  the  world 
first  became  acquainted  with  that  art, 
vital,  lucent,  which  had  been  conceived 
by  Russian  genius. 

To  America  there  came  echoes  of  the 
triumphal  tours  of  these  dancers  who 
were  reaping  honors  in  Paris  and  Lon- 
don. But  beyond  the  encomiums  and 
paeans  which  reached  her  through  the 
press,  this  country  remained  unac- 
quainted for  many  years  with  the 
artists. 

The  first  initiation  into  this  art  of 
Russia  came  in  1909.     Anna  Pavlowa 


[73] 


Michel  Fokine  and  Mme.  Fokina. 


ART  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


and  Mikail  Mordkin  were  engaged  to 
appear  in  the  Metropolitan  Opera 
House,  and  in  the  spring  of  that  year 
they  made  their  first  appearance  in 
"Coppelia."  The  opalesque  art  of 
these  two  met  instant  approval  and  the 
P a vlowa- Mordkin  visit  was  received 
with  acclaim  both  in  1909  and  the  fol- 
lowing seasons  when  the  two  repeated 
their  visits  to  these  shores. 

The  success  of  the  Russian  ballet 
abroad,  and  the  anticipation  which  it 
had  aroused  here,  did  not  fail  to  rouse 
many  of  the  lesser  lights  to  imitation. 
Hence  the  cause  of  Russian  art  was 
somewhat  dulled  in  America  by  the 
appearance  here  of  various  collections 
of  dancers,  who,  styling  themselves  as 
Russian  Ballets,  paraded  a  somewhat 
hybrid  art  before  the  public.  The 
vaudeville  stage,  the  musical  comedy 
theaters  and  other  centers  presented 
to  their  audiences  a  conglomeration  of 
ballet  numbers  by  dancers  who  pre- 
sented themselves  as  authentic  Russian 
dancers,  but  whose  tradition  had  been 
acquired  far  from  the  Imperial  Ballet 
School  and  some  far  from  Russia. 

Memory  of  this  somewhat  ill-odored 
period  of  quasi-Russian  art  was  im- 
mediately wiped  out,  however,  on  the 
arrival  to  this  country  of  the  Diaghileff 
forces  themselves.  And  it  was  on 
January  17,  19 16,  that  the  Russian 
Imperial  Ballet  gave  its  first  perform- 
ance in  America.  That  evening  in  the 
Century  Theater,  America  beheld  the 
plastic  fantasies  of  "L'Oiseau  de  Feu" 
of  Stravinsky,  ''Scheherazade"  of 
Rimsky-Korsakoff,  "Princesse  Enchan- 
tee"  of  Tchaikovsky  and  Rimsky-Kor- 
sakoff's  "Soldi'  de  Nuit."  And  the 
following  morning  the  critics  acquainted 
the  waiting  world  with  descriptions  of 
the  luminant  new  art;  of  the  pregnant 
subtleties  of  the  settings;  of  the  re- 
doubtable chorographic  genius  of  Fo- 


kine,  and  of  the  powerful  dancing  of 
Bolm,  Massine,  Macklezowa  and  the 
rest  of  the  ensemble. 

Followed  a  series  of  performances  in 
New  York,  which  brought  forth  most 
of  the  entrancing  conceptions  that  had 
entranced  Paris,  "Cleopatre,"  "Spectre 
de  la  Rose,"  "Petrouchka,"  "Narcisse," 
"Apres  Midi  d'Un  Faune,"  "lies  Syl- 
phides,"  "Prince  Igor"  and  "Sadko," 
which  had  its  world's  debut  here.  In 
addition  to  its  New  York  performances 
the  Diaghileff  Ballet  traveled  through 
New  England  and  the  Middle  West, 
leaving  in  its  wake  audiences  astonished 
and  entranced,  but  convinced  of  the 
beauties  of  this  exotic  and  revelant 
medium. 

The  following  year  the  ballet  re- 
turned to  America  again,  and  with 
similarly  brilliant  performances  re- 
newed again  its  triumphs.  It  was 
during  this  second  season,  that  of  19 16- 
17,  that  the  first  alliance  of  Russian 
and  American  art  was  sealed  in  the 
presentation  of  "Til  Eulenspiegel"  for 
which  Robert  Edmond  Jones,  the 
American  painter,  provided  the  scenic 
background. 

It  is  the  Ballet  Intime  of  Bolm  that 
has  carried  the  torch  of  the  Rus- 
sian ballet  throughout  the  country. 
Through  its  work  the  people  have  been 
awakened  further  not  only  to  the  beau- 
ties of  the  Russian  art,  but  have  per- 
ceived how  that  art  may  be  wedded  to 
American  conceptions.  With  this  bal- 
let, composed  almost  entirely  of  Ameri- 
cans, and  utilizing  the  works  of  Ameri- 
cans in  costumes  and  setting  and  music, 
Bolm  has  wrought  an  art  of  more  inti- 
mate and  delicate  suggestion.  In  a 
manner,  the  Ballet  Intime  has  gone  a 
step  beyond  the  Russian  Ballet;  from 
the  spectacular  and  brilliant,  it  has 
advanced  to  the  more  subtle.  Whereas 
the  pictorial  was  the  great  preoccupa- 


[75] 


ART  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


tion  of  the  former  ballet ;  the  more  inti- 
mate art  weds  itself  to  psychology  and 
poetry  and  a  more  suggestive  humor, 
satire  and  philosophy  have  stolen  into 
the  plastics  of  the  dance. 

At  the  same  time  interest  in  the  bal- 
let and  in  the  brilliant  theatrical  effects 
which  characterized  it  have  so  corre- 
spondingly increased  that  two  years 
ago  Michel  Fokine,  the  original  genius 
of  the  Russian  Ballet,  and  Mme.  Fokina, 
were  invited  to  this  country  by  a  lead- 
ing producer.  Here  Mr.  Fokine  has 
staged  "Aphrodite"  and  several  other 
glittering  spectacular  dramas.  With 
Mme.  Fokina,  herself  one  of  the  leading 
dancers  of  the  Diaghileff  forces,  Fokine 
has  also  toured  America  in  dance  re- 
citals. 

Similarly  other  ballet  movements 
have  begun  in  this  country.  The 
latest  of  these  is  the  inauguration  of 
what  has  been  called  a  National  Ameri- 
can Ballet.  The  movement  was  begun 
last  February  with  a  meeting  at  Town 
Hall,  under  the  leadership  of  Mme. 
Lubovska,  an  American  dancer. 

The  movement,  which  is  being  as- 
sisted by  prominent  persons  in  the 
artistic  and  society  world,  purports  to 
initiate  a  school  for  the  training  of 
American  ballet  dancers.  The  courses, 
according  to  present  plans,  are  to  be 
held  in  the  summer,  and  are  to  extend 
for  six  seasons  for  the  neophyte.  The 
training  of  the  novice  is  to  begin  at 
the  age  of  ten  and  no  pupil  will  be  per- 
mitted to  enlist  in  professional  work 
before  she  is  sixteen.  From  these  plans 
it  would  seem  that  the  American  move- 
ment had  looked  towards  Petrograd 
of  yesterday  for  inspiration  and  ideas. 
The  movement  has  numerous  possibili- 
ties and  bears  promise  of  distinct 
interest. 

Another  similar  activity  is  that  begun 
in  Seattle  this  season  by  Nellie  Cornish, 


the  Cornish  School.  There  amid  in- 
spiring surroundings,  Miss  Cornish  is 
attempting  to  build  up  a  school  of  the 
theater,  a  movement  which  this  season 
had  further  impetus  in  the  presence  of 
Adolph  Bolm,  Maurice  Brown  and 
others  there  who  gave  master  classes. 
It  is  the  first  time  Mr.  Bolm  has  taught 
outside  of  New  York,  and  it  is  indica- 
tive of  the  new  spirit  and  understand- 
ing of  ballet  that  its  beauties  are  being 
appreciated  and  felt  throughout  the 
country. 

Certain  it  is  that  a  greater  under- 
standing of  the  ballet  has  permeated 
the  country  and  this  feeling  undoubt- 
edly had  its  beginning  in  the  visit  of 
the  redoubtable  Diaghileff  forces.  Since 
their  visit  a  change  has  come  over  the 
arts  of  this  country;  a  new  force;  a 
greater  virility  has  been  reflected  in 
their  creation.  The  art  of  the  Russians, 
which  eschewed  pallidity,  which  em- 
braced the  force  of  color  and  the  fire 
of  freedom,  has  spread  its  gospel.  Here 
in  America,  where  our  ideas  of  the  dance 
are  not  influenced  by  folk  expression 
and  where  the  traditions  of  ballet  have 
not  been  handed  down  from  the  crea- 
tions of  a  national  youth,  the  Russian 
art  has  found  fertile  soil.  And  yet  the 
ballet  of  America  is  not  the  ballet  of 
Russia;  nor  are  the  arts  of  America 
those  of  Russia.  To  the  freedom  taught 
us  by  that  troupe  of  the  faithful  we 
are  learning  to  add  a  new  spirit,  one 
reflective  of  this  land ;  upon  that  founda- 
tion, we  must  continue  to  build  a  new 
art  revelant  of  the  soul  of  America. 

Again  the  Diaghileff  forces  traveled 
across  the  country,  and  although  suc- 
cess attended  their  trip  constantly,  the 
tremendous  costs  of  a  trans-continental 
tour  forced  them  to  abandon  their 
American  visits.  Since  their  return 
to  Europe  they  have  continued  their 
successes  in  Paris,  Italy  and  London. 


[76] 


ART  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


With  the  two  seasons  here,  however, 
the  flashing  successes  of  the  ballet  had 
left  their  mark  upon  this  country's  art. 
There  is  no  question  but  that  the 
Diaghileff  performances  brought  to 
American  creation  a  vitalizing  force, 
one  which  has  given  to  our  art  a  greater 
resplendence.  The  unity  of  chorog- 
raphy,  music  and  painting,  wedded  so 
ideally  in  the  ballet,  impressed  itself 
upon  all  three  branches  of  our  native 
culture  and  has  infused  the  works  of 
our  artists  with  a  more  virile  force. 
Especially  can  this  be  noted  in  the 
theatrical  arts  of  this  country,  which 
have  reflected  greater  luminance  since 
the  Ballet's  visit. 

Following  the  departure  of  the  Im- 
perial artists  for  Europe,  the  cause  of 
ballet  in  America  was  kindled  by  new 
forces. 

It  had  happened  that  Adolph  Bolm, 
one  of  the  leaders  of  the  Diaghileff  band, 
through  an  accident,  had  been  pre- 
vented from  returning  to  Europe  with 
the  rest  of  his  fellow-artists.  The 
declaration  of  war  which  followed 
shortly  then  kept  him  here. 

In  191 7,  Mr.  Bolm  organized  his 
Ballet  Intime.  This,  made  up  of 
American  artists,  sought  to  perpetuate 
the  traditions  of  the  Russian  art,  and 
at  the  same  time  aimed  to  utilize 
American  material,  not  only  in  its 
personnel,  but  in  the  music  and  settings. 
At  the  same  time,  the  Winter  Garden 
and  other  theaters  of  America,  realizing 
the  force  of  the  new  art,  invited  Mr.  Bolm 
to  stage  several  chorographic  scenes. 

The  following  season  a  momentous 
instance  of  the  effect  of  the  Russian 
ballet  was  offered  in  the  invitation 
given  to  Bolm  to  stage  the  "Coq  d'Or" 
of  Rimsky-Korsakoff  on  the  stage  of 
the  Metropolitan  Opera  House.  The 
success  of  the  ballet  was  instanta- 
neous— one  of  the  really  captivating 


successes  of  the  Metropolitan  reper- 
toire. Bolm  had  taken  his  dancers 
from  the  Metropolitan  and  among 
them  were  many  American  dancers. 
Into  them  he  had  almost  uncannily 
infused  the  spirit  of  the  work  and  the 
chorography  of  Fokine  was  revivified 
resplendent  ly. 

Together  with  "Coq  d'Or,"  the  fol- 
lowing season  Mr.  Bolm  was  asked  to 
stage  "Petrouchka,"  again  meeting  with 
similar  success. 

Possibly  the  finest  example  of  this 
close-knitting  of  the  American  and 
Russian  mediums  of  expression  came 
the  following  year,  with  the  perform- 
ances in  Chicago  and  New  York  of  '  'The 
Birthday  of  the  Infanta,"  by  John 
Alden  Carpenter,  and  presented  by  the 
Chicago  Opera  Company.  To  the 
work,  certainly  the  most  scintillant 
yet  written  by  the  well-known  Ameri- 
can composer,  and  with  the  cooperation 
of  Mr.  Jones,  who  had  previously  re- 
vealed his  understanding  of  the  Rus- 
sian spirit,  Mr.  Bolm  set  a  fantas- 
tic and  inimitable  chorography  based 
upon  the  delightful  Wilde  story.  The 
performance  revealed  that  a  company 
recruited  entirely  from  Americans, 
might  carry  on  the  traditions  of  the 
Diaghileff  ballet,  and  at  the  sams  time 
advance  a  step  further  in  chorographic 
subtleties.  The  work  brought  to  Mr. 
Bolm  further  triumph;  it  indicated 
that  to  him  had  fallen  the  mantle  of 
leader  of  maitres  de  ballets. 

In  his  Ballet  Intime,  Mr.  Bolm  made 
an  epochal  performance  from  "The 
White  Peacock"  of  Griff es.  In  the 
work  of  this  most-gifted  of  Americans, 
now  unfortunately  gone  from  us  too 
soon,  Mr.  Bolm  perceived  splendid 
descriptive  beauties,  and  to  this,  his 
ballet  of  the  "White  Peacock"  gave 
evidence. 

New  York  City. 


[77] 


NATIONALISM  IN  RUSSIAN  MUSIC 


By  Dr.  Alexis  Kali, 


WITHIN  the  last  few  months  here 
in  America,  I  have  read  scores 
of   articles   treating   the   same 
subject  of  the  possibilities  and  necessity 
of  creating  a  national  musical  art  in 
America.     Is  a  great  country  entitled 
and    expected    to    have    her    national 
music  that  would  be  representative  of 
her  national  ideas  and  ideals  and  not 
only    a    sum    of    separate    individual 
talents   each    one    reflecting   a   single 
individuality?      Is    a    young    country 
able    to    create    such    a    national    art 
without  decades  and  centuries  spent  in 
preparatory  work  of  self- concentration 
and  gradual  assertion  of  national  pe- 
culiarities and  ideas,  like  we  see  it,  for 
instance,  in  Italy,  Germany  and  France  ? 
How  does  nationalism  express  itself 
in  music?     What  are  its  sources  and 
ways  of  expression?    Instead  of  answer- 
ing these  questions  in  the  usual  way  of 
abstract  and  speculative  reasoning  I 
will  try  to  contribute  to  the  solution  of 
this  moot  point  in  a  practical,   con- 
crete,  purely  historical  way.     I  shall 
speak  of  the  nationalism  of  music  of 
my  country — poor,   devasted,   godfor- 
saken Russia.    At  the  present  time  she 
is  downtrodden,  stricken  by  famine  and 
epidemics,    torn   asunder   by   political 
dissensions   and   fanatical   doctrinism, 
but   in   her  past,    in   her   short   past, 
being   herself   like   America   a   young 
country,   she   has   created   a   national 
art  of  such  beauty  and  so  intensely 
typical   of   her   national   soul   that   it 
cannot  be  found  perhaps  in  any  other 
country  of  the  world. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  national  Russian 
music  as  a  cultured  product  of  con- 
scious art  (and  not  unconsciously  in 
the  folk  song)  did  not  practically  exist 


until  Glinka's  first  national  opera  (1836). 
Since  then  the  national  elements  in 
Russian  music  gradually  first  con- 
dense, then  crystallize  themselves  and 
after  a  short  period  of  some  two  scores 
of  years  in  the  eighties  and  nineties, 
we  feel,  they  have  expressed  themselves 
in  all  species  of  musical  creative  art  in 
the  greatest  imaginable  purity,  inten- 
sity and  beauty.  The  climax  is  reached, 
and  since  then  we  can  watch  in  Russian 
music  the  decline  in  interest  for  national 
tendencies.  The  Russian  national  soul 
has  found  its  adequate  expression  in 
music,  everything  here  was  said  and 
emphatically  repeated ;  and  new  ideas 
of  broader  expansion  have  substituted 
themselves  and  with  them  new  goals 
and  new  tendencies.  And  so,  within 
the  short  limits  of  much  less  than  a 
century  in  a  country  where  the  art  of 
music  did  not  practically  exist — a 
national  school  of  music  has  been 
founded,  had  time  to  create  works  of 
undying  beauty  and  worldwide  im- 
portance, to  reach  its  climax  and  to 
die  gradually  in  giving  place  to  other 
broader  and  more  modern  tendencies 
and  aims.  All  that  in  less  than  a  cen- 
tury. Is  this  not  an  instructive  and 
encouraging  example  for  a  young  coun- 
try like  America ! 

Everything  that  is  national  in  the 
wide  meaning  of  this  world,  everything 
that  reflects  the  pulsation  of  a  great, 
collective  heart,  that  of  the  nation, 
may  be  a  source  of  national  art. 
National  history,  national  legends, 
epics,  folk  songs,  folk  lore,  religion  may 
give  the  right  spark  to  set  into  sacred 
fire  the  creative  imagination  of  an 
artist,  who  wants  to  reflect  in  his  art 
instead  of  his  own  insignificant  indi- 


1781 


ART  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


viduality ,  this  great  [one  of  a  collective 
soul — a  nation. 

For  the  composer  this  spark  is  given 
primarily  by  the  folk  song.  I  empha- 
size :  folk  song,  not  popular  song.  Popu- 
lar song  is  mostly  a  product  of  civili- 
zation (very  often  a  wrong  one),  it  is 
mostly  "low-brow."  Folk  song  is  a 
sacred  thing.  It  is  plain,  naive,  un- 
sophisticated, but  it  reflects  a  great 
collective  heart  of  the  people.  If  it  is, 
for  instance,  a  cradle  song — any  mother 
of  the  great  nation  may  sing  it  as  her 
own.  If  it  is  a  love  song,  any  loving 
heart  may  be  moved  by  it.  But  real 
folk  songs  are  seldom  popular.  In 
Russia  we  know  wonderful  folk  songs, 
known  and  sung  only  in  one  little  out- 
of-the-way  hamlet  and  totally  un- 
known in  the  neighborhood.  Some  of 
those  songs  were  discovered  by  a  lucky 
chance  by  some  collectioneer  of  folk 
songs  and  so  made  known  to  some 
great  Russian  composer,  who  used 
them  in  his  composition. 

How  many  of  such  rare,  unknown 
gems  have  been  gathered,  for  instance, 
by  Rimsky-Korsakov  in  his  folk  song 
collections  and  used  later  on  in  his 
operas !  Often  such  a  real  folk  song 
is  brought  by  a  peasant  from  a  remote 
village  of  Russia  recruited  for  the 
military  service,  and  made  known  to 
his  fellow-soldiers  of  the  regiment. 
Sung  by  them  it  is  deprived  of  its 
natural  flavour,  adapted  to  their  quasi- 
civilized  notions  of  music  and  becomes 
a  degenerated  popular  soldier  song. 
Other  songs  are  in  the  same  way 
brought  into  the  factories  and  become 
popular  workmen's  songs;  others  too — 
bad  popular  dancing  tunes.  The  real 
folk-song  must  be  collected  and  written 
down  before  it  comes  into  contact  with 
civilization  and  loses  its  purity  and 
natural  flavour.  In  America,  for  in- 
stance, with  the  rapid  growth  of  con- 


ventional civilization  the  situation  is 
more  dangerous  than  anywhere  else. 
Civilization  is  crawling  steadily  into 
most  remote  Indian  reservations  and 
the  great  movement  of  collecting  this 
invaluable  source  of  inspiration  for 
national  music — I  mean  the  Indian 
songs, — this  move  so  valiantly  started 
by  Arthur  Farwell  (the  "Wa-Wan" 
movement),  Charles  Wakefield  Cad- 
man  and  others  may  be  very  soon 
frustrated  by  the  intrusion  of  civiliza- 
tion or  quasi-civilization. 

This  opinion,  I  confess,  may  be  sub- 
ject to  heated  argument,  but  I  firmly 
believe  that  the  progress  of  civilization 
among  the  people  being  of  the  greatest 
value  for  the  furthering  of  all  kinds  of 
manual  arts  and  even  for  the  develop- 
ment of  musical  taste,  has  the  most 
harmful  and  even  killing  effect  on  the 
folk  song.  The  latter  being  a  great  and 
primordial  power,  like  an  element,  is 
primary  to  any  culture  and  civiliza- 
tion. Being  influenced  by  it,  it  be- 
comes weakened  and  decoloured;  if, 
on  the  contrary,  the  folk  song  influences 
art,  as  the  greatest  product  of  culture, 
it  becomes  for  it  a  source  of  great  in- 
spiration, gives  to  it  a  tremendous 
invigorating  power  and  creates  a  great 
and  truly  national  art. 

Considering  the  tremendous  area 
occupied  by  Russia,  the  Russian  folk 
songs  in  their  essential  features  present 
astonishingly  few  varieties.  We  can 
certainly  discern  between  the  songs  of 
the  north  and  those  of  the  south, 
where  (especially  in  Ukraina)  we  find 
more  lively  and  cheerful  melodies,  but 
generally  in  the  whole  area,  occupied 
by  the  endless  plains  of  European 
Russia  and  of  Siberia,  Russian  songs 
are  sad,  dreamy,  rather  monotonous. 
Sometimes,  in  the  middle  there  are 
sudden  outbursts  of  buoyant  gaiety, 
but  of  a  short  duration  and  of  a  rather 


[791 


ART  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


unhealthy  nature,  and  the  sad  melody 
of  the  beginning  resumed  seems  still 
more  melancholy  and  hopeless.  It  is 
a  natural  expression  of  Slavonic  dreamy 
and  melancholy  national  character.  It 
could  not  be  otherwise,  in  a  country 
where  summer  is  short  and  winter  long 
and  rough,  where  sunshine  is  a  rare 
guest  and  rain  and  snow  are  pouring 
almost  incessantly,  where  people  have 
been  always  persecuted  and  taught  hu- 
mility first  by  the  Tartars,  then  by  the 
Moscow  Czars,  later  by  St.  Petersburg 
Emperors,  by  the  church,  and  by  the 
jails  or  penal  prisons  of  Siberia. 

Humility  and  sadness !  That  is  what 
Russian  people  have  been  taught  for 
centuries  and  what  they  have  ex- 
pressed in  their  folk  songs,  with  all 
their  privations,  sorrows,  and  pains. 

So  there  is  no  wonder  that  more  than 
seventy-five  per  cent  of  Russian  folk 
songs  are  in  minor.  To  be  more  pre- 
cise, it  is  not  a  real  modern  minor,  but 
usually  some  ancient  Greek  Church 
key,  mostly  Hypodorian  or  Locrian. 
That  accounts  for  the  strange  termi- 
nation of  real  Russian  folk  songs,  in  a 
fourth  below  the  note  that  would  be 
the  tonic,  if  the  key  would  be  reckoned 
as  a  modern  minor.  In  the  well-known 
song  of  the  Volga  Boatman,  for  instance, 
which  is  supposedly  written  in  G 
minor,  every  phrase  is  terminated  in  D. 

In  metrical  respect,  remarkable  is 
the  freedom  with  which  the  accents  in 
words  and  in  verses  can  be  moved.  The 
same  word  can  be  used  (as  it  was  in 
antique  metric),  with  different  accents. 
The  word  "Louchina,"  for  instance, 
can  be  used  as  "Louchina,"  "Lou- 
china,"  and  "Louchina."  And  the 
singers  of  the  people  understand  it  with 
perfect  skill,  to  bring  the  logical  accent 
in  accord  with  the  metrical  accent. 

From  a  rhythmical  point  of  view,  it 
is  to  be  noted  that  Russian  folk  songs 


present  very  often  a  strange,  unsym- 
metrical  structure:  a  combination  of 
even  and  uneven  rhythms  (5/4,  7/8, 
9/8  and  even  11/8). 

In  harmonic  respect,  except  a  few 
very  ancient  songs,  that  are  sung  in 
unison,  the  greater  part  of  songs  of 
central  and  northern  Russia,  are  sung 
in  a  peculiar  free  and  polyphonic  man- 
ner, the  leader  ("zapievala")  singing 
the  main  melody,  the  chorus  "or  com- 
pany" (in  Russian,  "artiel")  joining  in, 
and  each  group  of  singers  developing 
the  same  melody,  according  to  their 
individual  taste.  In  Russia,  while  list- 
ening to  such  performances  of  folk 
songs,  I  always  wondered  how  it  was 
possible  that  common  peasants,  plain, 
uneducated  people,  could  develop  such 
a  fine,  polyphonic  taste  that  is  usually 
a  symptom  of  a  great  musical  refine- 
ment and  culture. 

A  Russian  folk  song  performed  in 
that  way,  sounds  like  a  real  "fugato," 
and  we  feel  that  it  is  enough  for  an 
educated  composer  just  to  slightly  re- 
touch it,  and  it  will  turn  into  a  regular 
fugue.  So  is,  for  instance,  the  folk 
song  "V  buriu,  vo  grosu"  ("The  Storm 
Burst  Out")  in  the  first  act  of  Glinka's 
"Life  of  the  Czar" :  being  quite  Russian 
in  character,  it  sounds  like  a  regular 
fugue  by  Bach. 

Not  until  Glinka  did  the  Russian 
folk  song  enter  the  realm  of  art-music. 

In  Russia,  at  the  close  of  the  eight- 
eenth and  in  the  first  quarter  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  the  prevailing  in- 
terest in  music  was  chiefly  confined  to 
foreign  importations.  Italian  opera 
and  Italian  composers  reigned  supreme 
on  the  operatic  stage,  and  the  first 
Russian  composers  who  wrote  music  on 
Russian  libretti,  while  using  some  folk 
songs,  strived  to  adapt  them  to  the 
foreign  forms,  to  make  regular  Italian 
arias  or  "ensembles"  out  of  them  and 


[SO] 


ART  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


so  totally  disfigured  them  and  deprived 
them  of  their  national  flavor.  So  was 
Volkoff,  whose  opera,  "Taniousha," 
is  credited  with  being  the  earliest  work 
having  in  any  sense  a  Russian  charac- 
ter; Fomin,  for  one  of  whose  works 
Catherine  the  Great,  herself,  supplied 
the  libretto,  or  Verstovsky,  the  com- 
poser of  an  opera  which  attained  con- 
siderable popularity,  "The  Tomb  of 
Ascold." 

The  same  conditions  prevailed  in  the 
realm  of  songs.  It  was  the  epoch  of 
sentimental  or  "lacrymous"  songs  (as 
they  used  to  be  called  in  Russia),  and 
an  amazing  quantity  of  such  songs 
were  created  in  the  first  part  of  the 
nineteenth  century  by  composers,  who, 
at  that  time,  were  very  popular:  like 
Titov,  Aliabyev,  Gurilev,  Varlamov 
and  others.  Some  of  these  songs  like, 
for  instance,  Aliabyev's  "Nightingale," 
or  Varlamov's  "Red  Sarafan,"  attained 
a  world-wide  popularity  and  even  up 
to  now  are  wrongly  considered  abroad 
as  real  Russian  songs.  In  reality  they 
contain  only  a  Russian  theme,  forcibly 
pressed  into  the  foreign  forms  of  a  Ger- 
man song  or  a  French  "Romance." 

It  was  the  genius  of  Michael  Ivano- 
vich  Glinka  (1803-185 7),  who  first 
understood  how  impossible  and  humili- 
ating for  the  national  pride  of  Russia 
were  these  conditions  and  who  first 
strived,  and  succeeded,  to  make  the 
treasury  of  national  song  the  fount  of 
national  music. 

Born  and  educated  at  the  village  of 
Novospasskoi,  in  the  very  heart  of 
Russia,  in  the  government  of  Smolensk, 
he,  from  his  childhood,  had  embraced 
opportunities  to  hear  plenty  of  folk 
songs,  and  this  timely  assimilation  of 
the  folk  song  style  was  the  cause  of  the 
germination  of  his  adult  passion  for  the 
national  idea. 

At  the  age  of  twenty-seven,  feeling 


how  insufficient  was  the  musical  edu- 
cation of  an  amateur  that  he  received 
in  St.  Petersburg,  he  went  to  Italy  to 
study  music  and  during  the  three  years 
spent  there  in  continuous  learning  and 
self -concentration,  he  was  incessantly 
haunted  by  the  idea  of  solving  the 
problem  of  nationalism  in  Russian 
music  and  creating  an  opera  that  would 
be  Russian,  not  only  by  virtue  of  its 
Russian  subject  but  its  musical  sub- 
stance. 

Just  in  Italy,  surrounded  by  a  foreign 
atmosphere  and  suffering  from  a  great 
longing  for  his  country,  he  understood 
how  thoroughly  Russian  was  his  heart 
and  it  was  there  that  the  idea  of  a 
Russian  national  school  of  music  was 
generated.  It  was  like  in  Gogol's 
case,  who  also  in  Italy  conceived  the 
idea  of  the  most  "Russian"  novel  ever 
written:  "The  Dead  Souls." 

Having  come  back  to  St.  Petersburg, 
he  enthusiastically  took  to  the  subject 
proposed  to  him  by  the  great  Russian 
poet,  Joukovsky,  treating  the  heroic 
and  patriotic  deed  of  a  Russian  peasant, 
Ivan  Susanin,  a  subject  presenting 
great  potentialities  as  to  national  color, 
both  dramatic  and  musical.  The  opera 
was  written  in  comparatively  a  very 
short  time  and  was  accepted  by  the 
management  of  the  Imperial  Opera, 
and  so,  in  1836,  the  first  Russian 
national  opera,  "The  Life  of  the  Czar," 
saw  the  footlights  of  the  stage. 

It  cannot  certainly  be  expected  that 
Glinka  could  at  once  get  rid  of  the 
consequences  of  his  sojourn  in  Italy: 
there  are  in  the '  'Life  of  the  Czar' '  a  great 
many  Italian  arias  (both  in  melody 
and  in  style) ;  there  are  also  Russian 
themes  that  are  treated  in  Italian 
style,  but  there  are  enough  of  real 
Russian  folk  songs  arranged  with  a 
wonderful  skill  in  a  manner  that  all 
peculiarities  of  Russian  folk  songs  are 


[81] 


ART  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


thoroughly  preserved  in  melodic,  rhyth- 
mical and  harmonic  respect. 

Glinka's  second  opera,  "Russian  and 
Ludmilla"  (1842),  presents  a  much 
greater  achievement  from  the  point  of 
view  of  purity  of  national  style.  Being 
rather  a  failure  from  a  dramatic  point 
of  view,  owing  to  its  impossibly  fan- 
tastic libretto,  this  "concert  opera,"  as 
it  is  often  dubbed  in  Russia,  presents 
such  a  great  amount  of  wonderful 
music,  truly  Russian  in  its  conception 
and  spirit  that  through  the  whole 
further  course  of  the  history  of  Russian 
music,  even  up  to  now  (in  Stravinsky's 
ballets)  it  has  not  ceased  to  be  a  source 
of  inspiration  and  learning  for  the 
Russian  composers.  But  for  its  epoch 
it  was  too  great  a  revelation;  but  very 
few  could  understand  its  tremendous 
value,  and  the  opera  was  received  only 
half-heartedly.  Hurt  by  this  lack  of 
appreciation,  Glinka  left  Russia  for 
Paris  and  Spain,  where  he  spent  several 
years. 

In  Glinka's  operas,  we  find  beauti- 
ful musical  characteristics  of  several 
greater  and  smaller  nations,  spread 
over  the  waste  area  that  was  occupied 
by  the  former  Russian  empire.  There 
are  Caucasian  dances  and  a  ballad  of 
a  Finn  in  "Russian  and  Ludmilla" 
and  there  is  a  whole  Polish  act  in  the 
"Life  of  the  Czar." 

In  the  last  years  of  his  life  Glinka 
was  going  to  devote  himself  to  Russian 
church  music.  Here  also  he  wished  to 
create  new  ways  of  expression,  but  a 
premature  death  (1857)  frustrated  his 
plans. 

The  problem  of  nationalism  in  Rus- 
sian music  was  solved  by  Glinka  for 
almost  all  species  of  musical  art.  His 
successors,  first  Dargomijsky,  then  "the 
Invincible  Band"  of  the  "great  five:" 
Balakireb,  Borodin,  Moussorgsky,  Cui 
and  Rimsky-Korsakov,  could  only  con- 


tinue Glinka's  life-work  adding  new 
important  features  to  the  ways  of  musi- 
cal expression  of  nationalism  that  were 
already  found  by  Glinka.  His  ideas 
continued  to  be  propagated  with  ever 
increasing  refinement  and  ever  broader 
expansion,  and  it  was  in  Rimsky- 
Korsakov's  last  operas  (especially  in 
his  "legend  of  the  invisible  City  of 
Kitej")  that  they  reached  the  climax 
of  refined  mastership  and  almost  mysti- 
cal beauty. 

The  ways  of  nationalism  began  to 
grow  too  narrow  for  Russian  composers. 
Even  Rimsky-Korsakov,  had  he  lived 
longer,  would  probably  turn  from  a 
nationalistic  idiom  to  a  broader,  all- 
human,  musical  language.  I  remember 
my  last  talk  with  him  a  short  time  be- 
fore his  death,  when  he  was  talking  of 
his  plans  of  a  new  fantastic  opera,  an 
"opera-symphony"  as  he  called  it, 
that  would  be  no  more  "Russian," 
but  would  treat  as  subject  the  life  of 
prehistoric  humanity. 

The  younger  generation  of  Russian 
composers  did  not  care  to  continue  to 
walk  in  the  path  of  nationalism: 
Glazounov  growing  more  and  more  cos- 
mopolitan, Rachmaninoff — a  typical 
individualist,  Scriabin  having  strived 
to  express  in  music  abstract  theosophi- 
cal  and  mystical  tendencies  and  only 
Stravinsky  incidentally  expressing  his 
ideas  in  Russian  musical  idiom. 

Nationalism  in  Russian  music  has 
given  way  to  the  expression  of  broader, 
cosmopolitan,  all -hum  an  and  even  cos- 
mic ideas,  but  in  its  time  it  was  of 
tremendous  value  for  the  generation 
of  a  Russian  national  school  of  music 
that  we,  Russians,  at  present  time, 
"in  days  of  doubt,  in  days  of  dreary 
musings  on  our  country's  fate"  con- 
sider as  one  of  our  most  precious  and 
cherished  national  treasures. 

Los  A  ngeles,  California. 


[82] 


RUSSIAN  LITERATURE— GENERAL 
CHARACTERISTICS 

By  Alexander  Kaun 

(Department  of  Slavic  Languages  and  Literatures,  University  of  California) 


IN  LITERATURE  the  national  mind 
of  Russia  has  expressed  itself  more 
successfully,  more  intensely,  more 
quint^ssentially,  than  in  any  other  art. 
The  notable  achievements  of  Russian 
music,  painting,  plastic  arts,  are  but 
partial  when  compared  with  thejini- 
versal  triumph  of  Russian  letters.  The 
suppressed,  pent-up  national  energy 
has  sought  an  outlet  chiefly  in  litera- 
ture, which  voiced  the  sentiments, 
aspirations,  sufferings,  hopes  of  the 
silent  millions.  Russian  -  literature 
gives  expression  to  the  vastness  of  the 
country  which  stretches  from  the  Pacific 
to  the  Baltic  and  from  the  Arctic  to  the 
borders  of  China  and  Persia.  It  gives 
expression  to  the  complexity  of  a  nation 
[consisting  ^  jjjyfy-fuje  races  with  more 
than  one  hunSredTtongues,,  and  yet 
possessing  the  harmony  of  a  many- 
voiced  organ  in  its  basic  tones  anc 
motives.     It  is  the  voice  of  Russi 


It  is~~"dtnTcuirT6  discuss  this  subject 
without  employing  superlatives,  for 
Russian  literature  contains  the  ele- 
ments of  the  heroic  and  of  the  wonder- 
ful. What  other  epithet  but  "wonder- 
ful" may  be  applied  to  a  literature 
which  produces  within  one  generation 
such  a  constellation  of  writers  as  Push- 
kin, Lermontov,  Gogol,  Turgenev,  De- 
stoyevsky,  Tolstoy,  and  lesser  lights? 
Of  its  heroic  element  we  shall  speak 
later;  the  feeling  of  wonder  at  Russian 
literature  is  enhanced,  when  we  con- 
sider that  this  shower  of  great  artists 
poured  with  an  overwhelming  sudden- 
ness upon  an  audience  practically  un- 
prepared. Before  1820  Russia  could 
scarcely  boast  of  a  single  literary  work 


deserving    to    be    called    national    or 
original. 

This  statement  needs  qualifying,  to 
avoid  the  impression  of  modern  Russian 
literature  emerging  out  of  a  vacuum. 
To  be  sure,  one  must  remember  the/ 
inexhaustible  treasury  of  folk-lore  songs 
and  fairy-tales,  particularly  the  By  liny, 
the  heroic  sagas  chanted  by  illiterate 
bards  from  generation  to  generation,  in 
certain  parts  of  Russia  to  this  day. 
But  when  it  comes  to  written  literature, 
one  finds  only  a  single  secular  master- 
piece preserved  towards  the  advent  of 
Pushkin,  "The  Lay  of  Prince  Igor."1 
This  epic  was  composed  probably  by  a 
contemporary  of  the  battle  between  the 
Russian  prince  and  the  savage  Polo- 
vtsy,  in  1185.  By  its  vividness,  force- 
fulness,  serene  emotionalism,  the  epic 
ranks  with  the  "  Song  of  Nibelung"  and 
with  the  ' '  Song  of  Roland . ' '  Curiously 
enough,  the  poem  contains  not  a  single 
reference  to  the  Church  or  to  Christian 
precepts,  but  it  abounds  in  Pagan 
similes,  names  of  idols,  and  anthro- 
pomorphic descriptions  of  nature.  In 
the  introduction  the  singer  mentions 
with  reverence  the  great  bard,  Bayan, 
who  evidently  presented  a  whole  cate- 
gory of  composers.  Yet  nothing  has 
been  preserved  of  such  works  either 
antedating  or  succeeding  the  "Lay  of 
Igor."  Byzantine  Christianity,  to 
which  Russia  was  converted  by  Prince 
Vladimir  in  988,  consistently  perse- 
cuted every  manifestation  of  "heathen- 
ism," whether  it  were  in  the  form  of 
ceremony,  dance,  or  song,   or  instru- 

1  Put  to  music  by  Borodin.  Nicholas  Roerich  painted  the  de- 
signs for  this  opera.  This  is  characteristic  of  the  cooperative  spirit 
noticeable  in  Russia  among  the  arts. 


[83] 


ART  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


mental  music.  Until  the  time  of  Peter 
the  Great  the  written  word  was  eccle- 
siastic in  form  and  substance.  Of  this 
literature  the  "Chronicle  of  Nestor," 
a  history  of  Russia  brought  down  to  the 
eleventh  century,  stands  out  unparal- 
leled in  beauty  of  style,  epic  calm  of 
the  narrative,  and  lofty  sentiment, 
though  the  work  is  obviously  theo- 
logical by  authorship  and  in  spirit. 

From  the  second  half  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  until  the  early  part  of 
the  nineteenth,  Russian  literature  (and 
not  only  literature)  went  through  a 
gradual  process  of  adaptation  to  West- 
ern ways.  Already  under  Tsar  Alexis^ 
the  father  of  Peter,  there  began  to 
appear  translations  and  compilations  of 
foreign  romances.  The  breaking  up  of 
patriarchal,  ecclesiastic  Russia,  became 
evident  at  this  time  also  from  the  fact 
that  a  theatre  was  established  for  the 
entertainment  of  the  Orthodox  Tsar! 
The  westernizing  process  was  violently 
accelerated  by  Peter  the  Great,  who  was 
impatient  with  slow  evolution,  and 
"spurred  Russia  on  her  haunches," 
in  the  words  of  Pushkin.  The  revo- 
lutionary activity  of  this  crowned 
Maximalist  laid  its  stamp  on  every 
phase  of  Russia's  life,  on  customs  and 
costumes,  institutions  and  classes,  atti- 
tudes and  beliefs.  As  most  of  his 
reforms  bore  the  label  of  "made  to 
order, ' '  so  also  the  arts  under  him  and 
his  successors  lacked  spontaneity  and 
naturalness.  Throughout  the  eight- 
eenth century  Russian  literature  wore 
the  clumsy  garb  of  pseudo-Classicism, 
endeavoring  to  practice  the  tenets  of 
Boileau,  and  to  emulate  Corneille, 
Moliere,  and  Racine.  Though  there 
were  many  talents  among  these  writers, 
as  for  example  Lomonosov,  Sumarokov, 
Derzhavin,  they  were  blighted  in  the 
artificial  atmosphere  of  a  school  whose 
pompous  grandiloquence  was  particu- 


larly out  of  place  and  tune  amidst  a 
society  that  was  just  learning  how  to 
walk,  so  to  speak.  Another  reason  for 
the  ineffectually  of  the  literary  efforts 
during  this  time  lies  in  the  fact  that  they 
were  stamped  with  servility  to  the 
reigning  monarch  and  the  court,  with  a 
desire  to  please  and  flatter  the  powers 
that  be. 

Pseudp-XIUassicism  was  superseded  at 
the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  by  a 
short  reign  of  Sentiment alism,  under 
the  leadership  of  Karamzin  (1766- 
1826).  His  lacrimose  effusions  were  as 
alien  to  the  native~5oH~"as  had  been  the 
Gallicized  Hellenism  of  his  predecessors, 
but  still  Karamzin  departed  from  the 
artificial  Olympus  and  descended  a  step, 
towards  reality,  via  human  tears  and 
emotions.  Moreover,  Karamzin  had  the 
temerity  to  abandon  the  stilted  Church- 
Slavic  style,  and  began  to  employ  the 
living  Russian  prose.  What  he  did  for 
prose,  Zhukovsky  (1783-185  2)  en- 
deavored to  do  for  poetry.  He  greatly 
simplified  the  language  and  the  struc- 
ture of  the  Russian  verse,  but  he  used 
this  medium  for  themes  un-Russian. 
Zhukovsky  performed  an  important 
service  for  his  country,  by  transmitting 
western  Romanticism,  by  translating 
and  adapting  Schiller,  Uhland,  Herder, 
Byron,  Thomas  Moore,  and  others. 

Thus  we  see  that  before  the  publi- 
cation of  Pushkin's  "Russian  and 
Ludmilla"1  in  1820,  there  had  appeared 
in  Russia  no  original,  national  written 
literature  since  the  "Lay  of  Prince 
Igor,"  the  twelfth  century  masterpiece. 
Alexander  Pushkin  (1799-183 7)  leaped 
out  of  the  slumbering  mind  of  the 
nation  like  Athena  from  the  head  of 
Zeus :  in  full  armor.  While  at  school  he 
was  graciously  noticed  by  old  Derz- 
havin, and  was  patronized  by  Karamzin 
and  Zhukovsky,  but  the  youth  safely 


1  Put  to  opera  music  by  Glinka. 


[84] 


ART  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


escaped  the  influences  of  these  cor- 
yphaei of  the  three  literary  movements 
that  dominated  Russia  for  a  century. 
True,  he  paid  his  tribute  in  youthful 
poems  to  all  these  schools,  while  the 
spell  of  Romanticism  lingered  quite  a 
long  time  on  his  lyre,  tinging  his  verse 
with  a  Byronic  hue.  But  the  signifi- 
cance of  Pushkin  lies  in  his  being  the 
first  Russian  national  poet  of  modern 
times.  National  in  the  same  sense  as 
Dante,  Shakespeare,  Cervantes,  Goethe, 
Hugo,  were  national.  "To  be  a  Rus- 
sian, in  the  true  sense  of  this  word, 
means  to  be  universal,"  was  the  dictum 
of  the  nationalist  Dostoyevsky.  Per- 
haps this  criterion  may  be  applied  to  all 
national  art:  Whatever  is  truly  and 
genuinely  expressive  of  its  own  soil  and 
its  inhabitants,  must  needs  bear  an 
all- human  appeal.  Pushkin  was  a  na- 
tional poet  not  only  because  he  made 
use  of  the  fairy-tales  told  him  by  his  old 
peasant  nurse  for  a  series  of  delightful 
folk  poems;  not  only  because  he  made 
the  Russian  landscape  and  his  con- 
temporary society  live  in  word-pic- 
tures, notably  in  his  novel  in  verse, 
"Eugene  Onyegin";1  not  only  because 
he  immortalized  some  historical  per- 
sonages of  Russia  in  his  powerful  drama, 
"Boris  Godunov,"  and  in  his  prose 
tale,  the  "Captain's  Daughter";  not 
only  because  he  perfected  Russian  prose 
and  verse  to  such  a  degree  that  his  pre- 
decessors appear  to  stutter  in  com- 
parison with  him,  while  he  has  remained 
an  ideal  model  for  his  numerous  emu- 
lators to  this  day.  'Pushkin  was  a 
national  poet  because,  in  addition  to 
his  accomplishments  just  enumerated, 
he  expressed  the  universality  of  the 
Russian  mind,   the  catholicity  of  its 

1  Opera  music  by  Tchaykovsky.  Practically  all  of  Pushkin's 
long  poems  were  put  to  music.  Among  the  composers  who  made 
considerable  use  of  Pushkin  we  may  mention,  beside  Glinka  and 
Tchaykovsky,  also  Rubinstein,  Dargomyzhsky,  Musorgsky. 
Borodin,  Napravnik,  Rimsky-Korsakov.  This  list  is  far  from 
exhaustive. 


interests    and    strivings.     This    char*^  . 
acteristic  trait  of  Pushkin  is  common  ' 
to  all  great  Russian  artists,  which  is  to 
say; — to  all  genuinely  national  Russian 
artists. 

For  the  Russian  mind  is  intrinsically 
universal.  Geographically  and  his- 
torically the  Great  Plain  has  resembled 
an  open  palm  outstretched  to  the  uni- 
verse for  contributions,  a  broad  recep- 
tacle of  ideas  and  creeds  from  the  Norse 
and  the  Finns,  from  Western  Europe, 
from  Byzantium,  from  Asia.  Russia 
has  been  overrun  by  many  races,  in- 
vaded by  various  armies,  pervaded  by 
multifarious  civilizations,  systems  of 
thought,  schools  of  art,  religious  move- 
ments. But  this  arch-borrower  among 
nations  has  not  been  a  mere  imitator: 
the  Russian  mind  has  absorbed  and 
assimilated  the  world- values,  and  has 
recreated  and  reproduced  them  in  an 
intensified ,  uni versalize^^y nthesized 
form.  Witness  the  RusJI  ballet,  this 
synthesis  of  Egyptian,  ^reek,.  Persian, 
Caucasian,  Italian,  French,  Slavonic 
dances.  Or  take  another  illustration — 
Slavophilism.  Derived  from  the  teach- 
ings of  Schelling  and  Hegel,  originally 
based  on  the  doctrine  of  "master 
nations,"  this  borrowed  idea  has  in  the 
main  developed  not  along  the  lines  of 
its  sister-idea,  blatant  Pangermamsm, 
but  in  the  direction  of  universal  brother- 
hood, illuminated  by  such  exponents  as 
Aksakov,  Dostoyevsky,  Vladimir  Solo- 
vyov.  Again,  Russian  Socialism,  if  we 
consider  the  majority  of  its  adherents, 
refuses  to  remain  within  the  Procrus- 
tean frame  of  petrified  Marxism.  To 
the  careful  observer  it  is  still  in  the 
process  of  synthesizing  the  teachings  of 
the  Nazarene,  of  Nietzsche,  and  of  the 
mouzhik's  soil-philosophy. 

We  have  given  so  much  space  to 
Pushkin  in  this  short  paper,  for  the 
reason  that  he  was  the  tone-giver  and 


[85] 


ART  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


exemplar  for  the  galaxy  of  writers  who 
became  the  glory  of  Russia,  and  all  of 
whom  were  the  poet's  contemporaries, 
or  at  any  rate  were  born  during  his 
^  life-time.  In  his  footsteps  followed 
Lermontov  (1814-1841),  who  flashed 
through  life  like  a  radiant  meteor,  seek- 
ing to  reconcile  the  irreconcilable  (in 
his  "  Demon"),1  singing  of  the  pathos  of 
youth  and  freedom  (in  "Mtsyri"),2 
analyzing  the  contemporary  malady  of 
pseudo-Romanticism  a  la  Byron  (in 
a  "Hero  of  Our  Time").  Followed 
Gogol  ( 1 809-1 852),  who  developed  to 
the  utmost  the  realistic  method  which 
Pushkin  had  suggested  not  only  in  his 
prose,  but  even  in  his  poetic  works,  and 
which  became  the  dominating  method 
in  Russian  literature,  as  the  most 
suitable  for  the  national  temperament 
and  mind.  Abhorring  sham  and  affec- 
tation Russian  literature  quite  naturally 
adopted  realism,  profound  realism,  one 
which  is  concerned  not  with  the  re- 
production of  the  rejjity__visible  to 
our  physical  eye,  out  which  strives  to 
'  fathom  the  complex  reality  of  both  our 
inner  and  external  life,  in  which  mental 
I  adventures  and  dramas,  collisions  of 
'  vague  thoughts  and  of  ineffable  emo- 
tions, mystic  yearnings  and  subcon- 
scious experiences,  play  at  least  as 
important  a  part  as  tangible  actuality. 
The  genius  of  Gogol  was  one-eyed,  as  it 
were.  It  could  detect  and  unearth  only 
the  mean  and  commonplace  in  life, 
which  it  exposed  with  the  descriptive 
power  of  Dante,  and  with  the  exhaus- 
tive thoroughness  of  the  Dutch  masters. 
Hence  the  characters  of  "Dead  Souls" 
and  the  "Inspector  General"  are  as 
convincing  and  as  all-human  as  I  ago  or 
Sancho  Panza  or  Tartuffe. 

Turgenev    (1818-1883),    too,    prided 

1  Put  to  opera  music  by  Rubinstein. 

2  Put  into  a  "symphonic  poem"  by  Catoire.  and  also  by  Senilov. 
As  in  Pushkin's  case,  numerous  poems  of  Lermontov  were  used  by 
Russian  composers,  among  them  by  Rachmaninov,  Medtner, 
Cherepnin. 


himself  on  being  a  disciple  of  Pushkin, 
and  indeed,  no  Russian  has  approached 
Pushkin's  musical  speech  as  close  as 
Turgenev,  one  of  whose  last  "Poems  in 
Prose"  was  dedicated  to  "the  great, 
powerful,  truthful,  and  free  Russian 
speech."  Turgenev 's  numerous  works 
are  pervaded  with  a  certain  rhythm 
which  lends  them  all  a  musical  unity, 
so  that  one  may  regard  them  in  en- 
semble as  a  grandiose  symphony,  whose 
"main  theme"  is  Russia,  with  "varia- 
tions," such  as  peasant-Russia  ("Notes 
of  a  Huntsman,"  or  "A  Sportsman's 
Sketches"),  gentry-Russia  ("Rudin," 
"A  Nobleman's  Nest,"  and  elsewhere), 
"superfluous"  Russia  ("Rudin;"  "Diary 
of  a  Superfluous  Man,"  "Hamlet  of 
Shchigrov  District,"  and  elsewhere), 
Russia  of  Westerners  and  Slavophils 
("Smoke"),  of  Nihilists  ("Fathers  and 
Sons"),  of  youthful  Narodniki  who 
attempt  in  vain  to  merge  with  that 
sphinx — the  people  ("Virgin  Soil"). 
Five  decades  of  Russian  public  life, 
with  their  important  currents  of  thought 
and  social  movements,  are  presented 
as  if  in  a  musical  epic. 

No  one  eulogized  Pushkin  more  than 
that "  cruel  talent,"  Dostoyevsky  (182 1- 
1 8  8 1 ) .  Yet  there  is  a  striking  difference 
between  the  two  artists.  Pushkin  is/ 
serene,  rhythmic,  proportional,  Hel- 
lenic. Dostoyevsky  is — chaos.  His 
life  and  work  bear  the  stamp  of  a  con- 
tinuous physical  and  mental  torment. 
All  his  works  display  perennial  con- 
flict— between  freedom  and  morality 
("Crime  and  Punishment") ,  man  and 
God  ("Possessed"),  individual  and 
society  ("Memoirs  from  a  Dead 
House,"  "Possessed,"  and  elsewhere), 
good  and  evil  ("Brothers  Karamazov," 
the  "Idiot"),  individualism  and  col- 
lectivism ("Possessed,"  "Notes  from 
Underground").  Dostoyevsky  him- 
self, and  his  characters,  sorely  destitute 


[86] 


ART  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


of  peace  and  harmony,  are  torn  with 
inner  contradictoriness,  are  tortured 
with  perverse  notions.  With  the  clair- 
voyant power  of  an  epileptic  visionary, 
he  penetrates  the  most  hidden  crevices 
of  the  human  mind,  and  with  a  sadistic 
glee  he  chuckles  over  vivisecting  the 
inner  Ego,  and  demonstrating  its 
brutishness  and  morbidity.  At  the 
same  time,  and  with  equal  convincing- 
ness, he  reveals  for  us  the  eternally 
human,  compassionate,  and  good,  in 
the  lowest  outcasts  of  society,  in  crimi- 
nals and  prostitutes,  in  drunkards  and 
degenerates.  He  succeeds  in  destroy- 
ing the  established  lines  of  demarcation 
between  good  and  evil,  sanity  and  in- 
sanity, pity  and  cruelty,  reality  and 
hallucination,  atheism  and  religious 
fanaticism.  The  one  clear  leading 
motive  throughout  the  labyrinth  of 
Dostoyevsky's  world  sounds  the  pre- 
cept of  forgiveness  and  compassion  for 
those  whom  we  are  apt  to  condemn. 
Thus  in  the  end  the  "cruel"  artist, 
after  turning  us  inside  out  and  showing 
our  own  slumbering  instincts  and  po- 
tential evil,  forces  us  to  refrain  humbly 
from  throwing  stones  at  our  fellow- 
beings. 

To  the  same  group  and  period  be- 
longed Grigorovich  (182 2-1 899),  who 
preceded  even  Turgenev  in  his  peasant 
sketches  and  novels,  in  which  he  en- 
deavored to  force  upon  his  countrymen 
the  conviction  that  the  serfs'  were 
"human,"  hence  deserving  equal  treat- 
ment with  the  gentry.  Goncharov 
(181 2-1 891),  whose  masterpiece,  ' 'Oblo- 
mov,"  has  made  Oblomovism  a  generic 
epithet  for  the  good-hearted,  lacka- 
daisical, will-less,  and  pathetically  fu- 
tile Russian  noble.  Ostrovsky  (1823- 
1886),  the  first  and  for  a  long  time-  the 
sole  playwright,  whose  subject-matter 
consisted  largely  of  the  merchant  class, 
with  their  quaint  old-Russian  ways  and 


customs,  wilfulness  and  bovine  ob- 
stinacy. Nekrasov  (1821-1877),  the 
poet  of  "national  wrath,"  whose  force- 
ful verse  was  dedicated  largely  to  the 
peasantry,  their  quotidian  sorrows  and 
joys,  their  perpetual  tragedy  as  a  class 
of  serfs.  It  was  Nekrasov  who,  as 
editor  of  a  leading  monthly,  sheltered 
and  encouraged  the  young  military 
officer  modestly  signing  his  first  sketches 
with  the  initials  "L.  T." 

Leo  Tolstoy  (182 8- 191  o)  later  in  life 
jested  that  instead  of  becoming  a 
general  in  the  army,  his  original  am- 
bition, he  achieved  the  rank  of  a  general 
in  literature.  The  youngest  of  that 
wonderful  pleiade  which  actually  is 
Russian  literature,  Tolstoy  has  not  only 
outlived  his  confreres,  but  has  outshone 
them  in  world  fame  and  popularity. 
He,  too,  owed  allegiance  to  Pushkin; 
"Anna  Karenin"  originated  in  his 
mind  under  the  influence  of  one  of 
Pushkin's  prose  tales.  As  an  artist 
Tolstoy  stood  much  closer  to  Pushkin 
than  Dostoyevsky.  In  his  "  Cossacks," 
"War  and  Peace,"  "Anna  Karenin," 
and  other  works,  he  resembles  the  great 
poet  in  the  serene  epic  calm  with  which 
he  unfolds  the  liieand  events  of  his 
individuals  and  masses.  -  Tolstoy  the 
artist  has  given  us  the  Iliad  and  the 
Odyssey  of  nineteenth  century  Russia, 
gigantic  panoramas  of  human  actions 
and  passions,  all  of  them  saturated  with 
a  luminous  joy  of  life,  almost  Pagan  in 
its  intensity.  But  Tolstoy  the  moralist 
asserted  that  the  only  "hero"  of  inter- 
est to  him  was  "truth,"  and  that  which 
appeared  to  him  as  truth  urged  him  to 
battle  continually  the  Pagan  in  him. 
Tolstoy  the  Christian  renounced  his 
works  of  art,  and  gave  himself  unre: 
servedly  to  the  practice  of  his  preach- 
ing— simplification,  self-perfection,  non- 
resistance  to  evil,  life  according  to  the 
Gospel.     One  may  doubt  whether  he 


[87] 


ART  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


succeeded  in  achieving  perfection  and 
harmony  (his  tragic  flight  from  home  on 
the  eve  of  his  death  showed  how  poig- 
nantly conscious  he  was  of  contradic- 
tions and  discrepancies  in  his  own  life), 
but  to  Russia  and  to  the  world  the 
personality  and  career  of  the  sage  from 
Yasnaya  Poly  ana  will  ever  stand  out 
as  a  great  phenomenon  in  the  history 
of  human  quests  after  truth.  Though 
dead  in  body,  Tolstoy  continues  to  be 
considered  by  his  countrymen  as  "the 
conscience  of  Russia." 

With  the  "pleiade"  terminates  the 
period  of  the  wonderful  and  the  heroic 
in  Russian  literature,  giving  place  to 
more  "normal"  achievements.  The 
men  we  have  been  discussing  were  not 
only  endowed  with  an  enormous  crea- 
tive power  and  with  the  freshness  and 
vigor  of  pioneers  on  a  virgin  soil;  they 
also  possessed  the  nobility  of  spirit 
common  to  the  heroic  Intelligentsia.1 
For  one  must  remember  that  the 
history  of  modern  Russian  literature 
presents  a  continuous  martyrology. 
Russian  literature  begins  to  be  worthy 
of  this  name  as  soon  as  it  breaks  its 
servility  to  the  Court,  and  strikes  the 
note  of  opposition  to  the  mighty  of  the 
earth,  a  note  destined  to  be  its  dis-. 
tinguishing  feature  to  this  day.  In 
1790  Radishchev  published  his  '  'Jour- 
ney from  St.  Petersburg  to  Moscow," 
in  which  he  described  the  terrible  con- 
ditions of  serfdom,  and  appealed  to 
his  fellow-noblemen  "to  bethink  them- 
selves." Catherine  II,  erstwhile  friend 
of  Voltaire  and  Diderot,  had  Radish- 
chev sentenced  to  death  for  this  crime, 
which  sentence  she  commuted  to  life 
exile  to  Siberia.  Though  from  the 
literary    point    of    view    Radishchev's 

iThe  term  "Intelligentsia"  has  been  considerably  discussed  in 
Russia  and  greatly  abused  abroad.  In  the  way  of  an  inclusive 
though  not  too  concise  definition,  we  may  suggest  that  by  Intelli- 
gentsia we  understand  those  men  and  women  who  have  struggled 
and  sacrificed  themselves  for  the  welfare  of  the  people,  regardless 
of  their  personal,  social  and  economic  interests,  and  rather  to  the 
detriment  of  these. 


work  was  of  the  pre-Pushkin  variety, 
written  in  a  stilted  style  and  after  a 
foreign  model  (Sterne's  "Sentimental 
Journey"),  it  struck  the  keynote  of 
Russian  literature,  in  its  sentiment, 
authorship,  and  fate. 

The  sentiment  of  abolitionism,  from 
the  abolition  of  serfdom  to  the  abolition 
of  all  fetters  on  the  human  person- 
ality— political,  social,  economic,  or 
ethical,  has  been  the  leit  motif  of  the 
Russian  writers,  of  the  "pleiade"  as 
much  as  of  their  successors.  It  rang 
in  the  passionate  pleas  for  the  emanci- 
pation of  the  serfs,  of  Herzen,  Turge- 
nev,  and  other  "men  of  the  Forties"; 
in  Dostoyevsky's  harangues  against  the 
tyranny  of  all  bonds;  in  Tolstoy's 
criticism  of  the  state  of  the  church, 
and  of  other  institutions;  in  the  naive 
vociferations  of  the  Nihilists,  during 
the  eighteen-sixties ;  in  the  Narodnik 
literature  which  championed  and  ideal- 
ized the  peasant  through  the  latter 
third  of  the  past  century;  in  the  con- 
science-waking writings  of  Korolenko 
(born  in  1853) ;  in  the  stories  and  plays 
of  Chekhov  (1 860-1 904),  which  form 
on  the  whole  a  powerful  plea  for  the 
abolition  of  pettiness  and  smugness^ 
'from  our  life;  in  the  works  of  Gorky- 
(born  in  1869),  who  chants  hymns  to 
Man  (chelovyek),  free  from  conventions, 
and  blinders ;  in  the  harrowing  analyses 
of  Andreyev  (1 871-19 19),  which  leave 
not  one  of  our  beliefs  and  accepted 
values  unexamined,  and  spur  our  con- 
science and  consciousness  to  abolish  all 
sugar-coated  half-truths,  to  doubt  and 
question  perpetually;  even  in  the  sen- 
sual novels  of  Artsibashev  (born  in  - 
1878)  one  feels  the  passionate  craving 
for  the  abolition  of  binding  principles, 
of  those  high  ideals  which  drove  Rus- 
sian youth  to  sacrifice  their  life  and 
freedom.  The  sentiment  of  abolition- 
ism pervading  Russian  literature  has 


[88] 


ART  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


made  it  largely  negative,  critical,  salu- 
tarily destructive,  since  abolition  is  the 
preparatory,  purgative  stage  before  the 
dawn  of  the  constructive  era,  before 
the  pursuance  of  the  positive  ideal — 
the  perfect,  free  individual. 

The  authorship  of  the  "Journey 
from  St.  Petersburg  to  Moscow"  has 
also  been  characteristic  of  Russian 
literature.  Radishchev  was  a  noble, 
as  were  nearly  all  the  writers  and 
leaders  of  the  Intelligentsia  and  of  the 
revolutionary  movements  till  the  latter 
part  of  the  nineteenth  century.  The 
men  and  women  who  belonged  by  birth 
to  the  privileged  class,  who  possessed 
estates  and  serfs  and  high  positions, 
and  who  fought  for  the  abolitionof  these 
privileges,  who  sacrificed  their  comfort 
and  freedom  and  often  their  life  in  an 
effort  to  undermine  their  well-being  as 
a  class,  have  permeated  Russian  litera- 
ture and  public  activity  with  the  spirit 
of  unreserved  altruism.  This  idealism 
naturally  implied  its  concomitant,  the 
fate  of  Radishchev,  prison,  exile,  at 
times  death,  hence  the  road  of  Russian 
literature  and  of  the  Intelligentsia  in 
general  has  been  strewn  with  victims. 

It  is  evident  that  a  literature  which, 
in  the  absence  of  other  outlets,  serves 
as  the  focus  of  public  thought  and 
opinion,  and  which,  furthermore,  is 
created  by  fervent  altruists,  cannot 
serve  art  for  the  sake  of  art.  Until  the 
end  of  the  nineteenth  century  thinking 
and  creative  Russians,  with  very  few 
exceptions,  felt  duty  bound  to  devote 
all  their  faculties  and  accomplishments 
to  the  service  of  the  people.  Litera- 
ture, in  particular,  bore  the  stamp  of  the 
"repentant  noble,"  the  landowner  of  a 
sensitive  conscience,  who  felt  obliged  to 
atone  for  the  sins  of  his  fathers,  and' to 
repay  his  debt  to  the  narod,  the  people. 
Yet    though    Russian    literature    was 


pervaded  with  a  "purpose,"  with  a 
sermon,  it  never  degenerated  into  di- 
dacticism. The  writers  could  not,  even 
if  they  wished,  carry  on  open  propa- 
ganda anent  the  burning  issues  of  the 
day:  The  threatening  red  pencil  of  the 
bigoted  censor  dictated  reserve  and 
caution,  Aesopian  language  and  subtle 
symbolism,  the  replacement  of  the 
specific  and  precise  by  the  general  and 
infinite,  of  the  local  and  transitory  by 
the  universal  and  everlasting.  But  the 
universality  and  permanent  value  of 
these  writers  is  due,  of  course,  not  so 
much  to  the  negative  effect  of  the  cen- 
sor, as  to  their  inherent  aesthetic  sense, 
to  the  intrinsically  Russian  quality  of 
their  genius. 

"<  Modern  Russian  literature,  in  a  word, 
is  distinguished  by  the  same  character- 
istics which  we  have  indicated  before, 
and  which  we  may  recapitulate  as: 
Focus  of  the  national  genius;  "Art  for 
life's  sakejj.  yet  not  didacticism ;  aboli- 
tionism— ^the  emancipation  ofthlTin- 
dividual  from  all  fetters;  reserve,  in- 
tensity, universalism,  due_jn  pari:  to 
censorship  conditions,  but  chiefly  to  the 
inherent  qualities  ot  the  Russian  mind. 
Iiris  difficult  Lo  ~garrge~the— state~l)f 
Russian  letters  to-day,  while  the 
country  is  going  through  severe  trials 
and  subversive  upheavals:  Inter  arma 
silent  musae.  Yet  from  the  scanty  in- 
formation which  filters  through  from 
Russia  one  may  conclude  that  even  at 
present,  amidst  conditions  of  material 
misery  and  mental  humiliation,  the 
printed  page  and  the  stage  continue  to 
pledge  the  immortal  power  of  the 
national  mind.  Russian  literature  has 
been,  and  will  continue  to  be,  let  us 
hope,  something  more  than  an  art :  an 
all-human  religion,  an  evangel,  a  pillar 
of  fire  in  the  gloomy  reality. 

Berkeley,  California. 


to 


[89] 


NOTES  FROM  THE  NEW  YORK  GALLERIES 

By  Helen  Comstock 

Contemporary  art  predominates  in  current  exhibitions  in  New  York,  and  there  is  an  unusually 
comprehensive  showing  of  oils,  water  colors  and  sculpture  to  represent  the  work  of  modern 
artists  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic. 

George  Laks  at  the  Kraushaar  Galleries 

George  Luks,  at  the  Kraushaar  Galleries,  is  showing  both  oils  and  water  colors,  equally  interest- 
ing as  the  expression  of  entirely  different  moods.  "The  White  Macaw"  among  the  oils,  is  a  lady 
who  smiles  rather  insipidly  under  her  bonnet  with  its  drooping  white  feather.  The  features, 
portrayed  with  infinite  softness  of  outline,  are  nevertheless  vivid  in  the  suggestion  that  the 
lady's  character  may  resemble  the  bird  whose  plumage  she  wears.  Gray  tones  dominate  with 
a  telling  use  of  white  on  the.  bonnet. 

The  "Breaker  Boy"  has  the  masterly  ease  of  the  artist  who  is  sure  of  his  medium.  The  boy's 
face,  whose  unhealthy  whiteness  is  slightly  smudged  with  grime,  stands  out  from  a  dark  back- 
ground broken  only  by  the  flame  in  his  cap  and  the  glow  of  the  cigarette  he  holds  with  such 
nonchalance  in  his  fingers.  "Mike  McTeague,"  in  bright  orange,  is  no  more  than  a  baby,  but 
shows  unmistakable  belligerence.  "Mary"  is  a  little  girl  in  fancy  dress,  and  in  the  "Girl  from 
'Tinicus'  "  there  is  glowing  emphasis  on  the  fish  she  holds  in  her  hand.  In  "New  York  Cabby" 
the  contours  of  the  face  are  built  up  as  in  clay,  and  there  is  vivid  emphasis  on  the  coloring  of  nose 
and  cheeks. 

The  water  colors,  fifteen  in  number  and  all  of  New  York,  are  evidently  a  direct  response  to  the 
artist's  love  of  color  and  movement. 

John  Marin's  Pictures  at  the  Montr oss  Galleries 

The  growth  of  John  Marin's  art  since  1908  to  the  present  day  is  traced  in  a  comprehensive 
exhibition  of  his  water  colors,  oil  paintings  and  etchings  at  the  Montross  Galleries.  Water  color, 
his  favorite  medium,  offers  the  most  significant  record  of  his  development.  His  facility  in  handling 
pure  wash,  evident  from  the  first,  has  adapted  itself  to  varied  methods  and  points  of  view  during 
this  period. 

The  trees,  islands  and  sea  near  Stonington,  Maine,  recur  again  and  again  as  his  subjects,  seen 
most  frequently  from  the  cliffs,  and  spread  out  in  an  intricate  pattern  that  never  neglects  a  basic 
unity  of  design.  A  glimpse  down  into  the  valley  to  the  hills  beyond  is  expressed  in  the  simplest 
terms,  yet  all  that  is  fundamental  is  embodied  in  the  seemingly  broken  lines,  each  one  of  them  a 
key-note  to  complete  form. 

Often  his  color  is  subtle  and  quiet,  unobtrusive,  yet  insistent,  and  the  emphasis  is  allowed  to 
rest  on  structure  and  design,  and  again,  particularly  in  his  most  recent  work,  there  is  color  simply 
for  the  sake  of  color,  as  in  "The  Island,  Blue  and  Orange,  Maine,  1920,"  with  an  appeal  direct 
to  the  emotion  in  its  glowing  spontaneity. 

The  oils,  only  a  few  in  number,  include  "St.  Paul's,  New  York,  192 1,"  and  "From  Brooklyn 
Bridge,  192 1,"  expressing  his  most  recent  viewpoint,  and  approaching  more  closely  the  field  of 
abstraction. 

Etchings  record  a  growth  away  from  the  delicacy,  and  also  the  conventionality,  of  his  French 
and  Venetian  series  to  a  highly  individual  technique,  characterized  by  firm,  strong  lines,  in 
"Brooklyn  Bridge,  1913"  and  "Woolworth  Building  from  River,  1913." 

Andre  Derains  Paintings  at  the  Brummer  Galleries 

In  Andre  Derain,  whose  paintings  are  exhibited  at  the  Brummer  Galleries,  43  East  57th  St., 
through  February,  modern  French  art  finds  a  particularly  courageous  exponent.  Influenced  from 
the  outset  of  his  career  by  Cezanne,  his  continued  experiment  in  the  inter-relation  of  form  and 
color  has  given  him  leadership  among  "Les  Fauves" — the  artists  of  revolt.  An  able  draughts- 
man, he  is  not  content  to  draw  outlines,  but  must  create  form  through  the  suggestion  of  the  very 
fundamentals  of  its  structure. 

A  still  life,  "La  Table,"  evinces  his  mastery  of  drawing,  and  has  in  it  the  sincerity  and  sim- 
plicity that  relate  it  to  the  classic  spirit. 

[911 


ART  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 

Among  the  landscapes,  "L'Arbre  dans  l'lle  Fleurie"  has  marked  strength  of  composition  and 
is  characterized  by  deeper  tones  than  he  generally  employs.  The  great  tree  that  spreads  its 
branches  across  a  vista  of  water,  island,  and  deep  blue  sky,  dominates  by  sheer  force  of  line. 
Lighter  in  key  is  his  Italian  landscape,  "Environs  de  Castelgandolfo,"  which  employs  a  delicate 
green  in  the  foliage  of  a  group  of  trees  that  circle  a  rolling  stretch  of  country.  There  is  a  suggestion 
of  an  exquisite,  lacey  quality  in  the  leaves  of  the  trees,  while  the  trunks  are  emphasized  in  strong, 
bold  strokes.     "La  Route  d'Albano"  is  similar  in  subject  and  feeling. 

In  painting  a  portrait,  Derain  insists  on  the  introduction  of  a  purely  personal  interpretation 
of  his  subject.  One  of  these  is  really  a  drawing  in  oil,  so  simple  is  its  treatment.  Another, 
"LTtalienne,"  is  arresting  for  its  strength  and  power. 


"Lifting  of  the  Fog."     By  Eric  Hudson.     From  the  Ferargil  Galleries. 

Eric  Hudson's  Marines  at  the  Ferargil  Galleries 

It  is  not  often  that  an  artist  is  able  to  make  you  forget  his  canvas  and  feel  instead  the  very 
presence  of  his  subject.  Yet  Eric  Hudson,  whose  marines  are  exhibited  at  the  Ferargil  Galleries, 
607  Fifth  Avenue,  does  this  and  even  goes  a  step  further,  for  he  not  only  makes  you  feel  the  sea, 
but,  out  of  his  own  experience,  increases  your  knowledge  of  it.  He  paints  it  as  Masefield  writes  a 
poem,  with  the  authority  of  intimate  understanding.  The  sea  he  paints  is  not  the  pleasant  back- 
ground to  a  summer  vacation  that  most  of  us  know,  calm  under  an  occasional  sail,  or  only  mildly 
vigorous  at  most,  but  has  all  the  might  of  a  primal  force,  splendid  and  untamed,  that  has  domi- 
nated men's  lives  since  the  Phoenicians  first  went  exploring  and  the  Vikings  set  out  for  unknown 
lands.  The  boats  he  paints  are  not  the  trim,  white  affairs  for  pleasure  and  sport,  but  fishermen's 
boats  that  wring  men's  living  from  the  sea  and  are  built  sturdy  and  strong  to  stand  the  buffeting 
from  wind  and  water  alike. 

"Off  Shore  Breeze"  combines  many  elements, — the  blue  sea  shading  down  to  black  in  the  hol- 
lows between  the  waves,  a  dark  boat  with  sail  in  shadow,  and  a  dory  trailing  behind,  the  high 
black  rocks  close  by,  and,  more  than  that,  the  tang  of  the  salt  air  and  the  sting  of  a  brisk  breeze. 
In  the  "West  Wind,"  one  of  the  larger  canvases,  two  boats  move  in  opposite  directions,  one  in  the 
background  having  quite  the  same  effect  of  movement  as  the  other,  more  strongly  delineated,  in 
front  of  it. 

[92] 


ART  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


"Figure  Half-Draped."    By  Abbott  H.  Thayer. 

Thayer's  Exhibition  at  the  Milch 
Galleries 

Abbott  H.  Thayer's  "Figure  Half-Draped," 
recently  exhibited  with  the  remaining  pictures 
in  the  Thayer  estate  at  the  Milch  Galleries,  has 
just  been  purchased  by  a  collector  for  $40,000. 
The  painting  is  considered  one  of  the  finest 
examples  of  the  art  of  the  great  American 
figure  painter,  and  is  characterized  by  the  firm 
modeling  which  links  his  work  with  that  of  the 
masters  of  the  Renaissance. 

The  figure  is  one  of  great  majesty  and  poise, 
with  white  flesh  tones  emphasized  by  the  rich 
olive  green  of  the  drapery.  In  accordance  with 
the  wishes  of  the  Thayer  family,  no  other  title 
has  ever  been  given  to  the  picture,  although 
"Muse"  has  been  suggested  because  of  the 
lyre  indicated  in  sweeping  strokes  at  one  side. 

Art  lovers  will  have  another  opportunity  to 

[93] 


see  the  picture  before  it  passes  to  its  new  owner 
as  it  is  to  be  loaned  for  the  Thayer  Memorial 
Exhibition  at  the  Metropolitan  Museum  from 
March  20  to  April  30. 

Exhibition  of  Portraits  by  Dorothy  E. 
Vicaji  at  the  Ehrich  Galleries 

The  reports  of  the  splendid  work  which 
Dorothy  E.  Vicaji,  a  young  English  portrait 
painter,  did  during  her  unheralded  visit  to  the 
United  States  last  year,  are  more  than  verified 
by  the  exhibition  of  her  work  current  at  the 
Ehrich  Galleries  from  January  30th  to  Feb- 
ruary nth,  which  offers  the  American  public 
its  first  opportunity  to  judge  of  portraiture 
which  has  been  hailed  with  great  acclaim  by  the 
art  critics  of  Great  Britain.  The  portraits 
shown  by  Miss  Vicaji,  among  them  recently 
completed  ones  of  H.  R.  H.  Queen  Alexandra 
and  Dame  Margaret  Lloyd  George,  prove  her 
to  be  a  master  of  color  and  an  artist  endowed 
with  the  power  of  catching  likenesses  which  are 
startling  in  their  accuracy. 

Particularly  interesting  are  two  portraits  of 
children,  one  of  them  a  riot  of  gorgeous  color, 
in  which  the  youngster  stands  against  a  back- 
ground of  brilliant  rhododendrons.  In  direct 
contrast  to  this  is  the  portrait  of  the  wife  of 
the  premier,  which  is  simplicity  itself.  Easily 
posed  in  a  dress  of  dark  blue  against  a  sombre 
background  all  the  interest  is  concentrated  in 
the  face,  in  which  one  finds  the  strength  and  the 
ambition  which  has  been  of  such  aid  to  Lloyd 
George  in  the  difficult  days  through  which 
he  has  passed.  The  portrait  of  the  Queen, 
painted  as  she  was  at  the  height  of  her  glory 
and  beauty,  presents  her  wearing  the  broad 
blue  ribbon  of  the  Garter,  the  storied  crown 
of  England  and  many  of  her  various  orders. 
Her  Majesty  was  so  pleased  by  it  that  she  gave 
Miss  Vicaji  her  consent  to  bring  the  portrait  to 
America  and  it  is  with  this  permission  that  it  is 
shown  at  the  Ehrich  Galleries. 

The  most  striking  thing  in  Miss  Vicaji' s 
portraits,  in  addition  to  her  surprising  feeling 
for  color,  is  the  strength  with  which  she  paints. 
At  no  time  does  her  work  suggest  that  it  was 
done  by  a  woman,  for  it  has  none  of  the  pale 
lightness  so  often  found  in  portraits  painted  by 
women.  When  one  stops  to  reflect  that  Miss 
Vicaji  is  at  the  very  threshold  of  her  career, 
having  begun  to  paint  professionally  only  at  the 
end  of  the  war,  one  realizes  how  true  is  the 
declaration  of  a  leading  American  critic  who 
said,  "America  is  greatly  honored  to  at  last 
have  Dorothy  Vicaji  painting  on  this  side  of  the 
Atlantic."  G.  H. 


CURRENT  NOTES  AND  COMMENTS 

Poncho  Indian  Ceremonial  Dances 
Indian  Night  of  the  Archaeological  Society  of  Washington 

Through  the  hospitality  of  Mr.  Victor  J.  Evans,  the  Archaeological  Society  of  Washington 
gave,  January  2 1 , 1 92  2 ,  an  Indian  Night  with  ceremonial  dances  by  Poncho  Indians  from  Oklahoma, 
interpreted  by  Mr.  Francis  LaFlesche  of  the  Bureau  of  American  Ethnology. 

The  President  of  the  Washington  Society,  Hon.  Robert  Lansing,  former  Secretary  of  State, 
presided.  Mr.  Burke,  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs,  was  introduced  and  made  a  few  remarks. 
Mr.  Francis  LaFlesche  of  the  Bureau  of  American  Ethnology,  was  then  introduced,  having  been 
requested  by  Mr.  Evans  to  explain  the  meaning  of  the  ceremony  and  its  regalia.  The  Indians 
entered  the  room  in  processional  form  and  engaged  in  the  ceremonial  dances,  which  Mr.  LaFlesche 
described  as  follows :  The  He-thu-shka  is  the  name  of  an  ancient  society  of  warriors.  The  name  is 
archaic,  it  had  long  ago  lost  its  meaning  as  well  as  the  history  of  its  origin.  Tradition  says  that 
the  society  originated  with  the  Omaha  and  Ponca  tribes,  who  acted  jointly  in  its  organization. 
The  society  had  two  officers,  the  Nu-don-hon-ga  or  Commander,  and  the  Wa-gtha,  or  Herald; 
these  were  elected  by  the  members,  usually  by  acclamation.  The  Commander  must  be  not  only 
a  warrior  of  distinction  but  a  man  held  in  popular  esteem,  and  the  Herald  must  be  a  man  generally 
liked  by  the  people.  Membership  in  the  society  was  restricted  to  warriors  who  had  won  military 
honors,  which  must  have  been  publicly  and  ceremonially  confirmed. 

In  ancient  times  when  a  season  or  two  had  passed,  during  which  battles  with  the  enemy  had 
taken  place,  the  warriors  who  had  fought  decided  to  make  formal  application  to  certain  tribal 
authorities  for  the  public  awarding  of  decorations.  This  ceremony  was  called,  "The  Assembling 
of  Military  Honors." 

A  day  was  appointed  for  the  ceremony,  which  was  held  in  the  open.  Before  the  authorities  was 
placed  a  shrine  containing  the  symbolic  articles  that  pertained  to  war.  When  the  people,  at  the 
call  of  a  herald,  had  gathered  around  the  place  of  ceremony  the  applicants  for  military  decorations 
entered  the  circle  in  a  body.  A  man  approaches  the  shrine  to  recount  the  deed  for  which  he  makes 
claim  to  an  honor  decoration.  He  holds  high  above  his  head,  so  that  all  may  see  it,  a  little  red 
stick,  a  symbol  of  truth.  If  there  are  witnesses  who  can  prove  that  the  man  speaks  falsely  they 
step  forward  with  cries  of  protest.  The  authorities,  however,  give  permission  to  the  claimant 
to  drop  the  red  stick  upon  the  shrine,  first  telling  him  that  he  who  speaks  falsely  will  be  punished 
by  the  supernatural  powers.  The  man  drops  the  stick,  but  if  it  falls  to  the  ground  the  people 
shout  in  derision.  The  next  claimant  comes  forward,  lifts  high  the  little  red  stick  as  he  tells  his 
story,  drops  the  stick  gently  upon  the  shrine,  then  a  great  shout  of  approval  rises  from  the  crowd. 
In  this  manner  the  ceremony  proceeds  to  the  end. 

The  honor  decoration  for  each  of  the  three  highest  degrees  is,  the  middle  feather  taken  from  the 
tail  of  a  mature  golden  eagle.  The  warrior  to  whom  an  honor  is  awarded  must  provide  himself 
with  this  particular  feather,  but  he  is  instructed  by  the  authorities  how  to  wear  the  feather  so  that 
it  shall  indicate  the  degree  it  represents. 

A  warrior  who  had  won  more  than  one  of  each  of  the  three  highest  degrees  for  valorous  deeds 
became  entitled  to  wear,  at  the  dance  of  the  He-thu-shka,  a  special  decoration  which  is  attached 
to  a  belt  and  symbolizes  the  scene  of  a  battle  field  after  the  combatants  had  left.  This  decora- 
tion is  called  "Crow"  because  this  bird  is  always  the  first  to  find  the  battle  field.  The  crow's 
head  and  neck  are  attached  to  the  belt.  Next  to  the  crow  the  magpie  comes  to  the  scene,  then  the 
buzzard,  and  lastly  the  eagle.  The  gray  wolf  is  represented  in  this  symbolic  decoration,  for  that 
animal  also  feasts  upon  the  slain. 

The  feather  war  bonnet  is  the  most  picturesque  of  the  Indian  decorations.  The  right  to  make  a 
war  bonnet  goes  with  the  honor  that  is  publicly  and  ceremonially  awarded  to  a  warrior  for  his 
valorous  deeds. 

There  is  a  special  dance,  dramatic  in  character,  for  the  bravest  of  the  brave.  In  this  dance 
each  warrior  reenacts,  in  a  way,  his  movements  as  he  fought  in  battle  when  he  won  his  honors; 
the  crouching  positions,  the  moving  from  side  to  side,  all  of  which  follows  strictly  the  rhythm 
of  the  music  and  represents  the  dodging  of  the  arrows  of  the  enemy.  The  warrior  who  had  been 
wounded  in  battle  goes  through  his  struggles  for  his  life,  but  never  fails  to  keep  in  perfect  time 
with  the  rhythm  of  the  music.     This  dance  was  given  by  the  Poncho  Indians  with  pleasing  effect. 

[95] 


ART  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


A  New  Memorial  to  Jeanne  D'Arc  in  Washington 

Meridian  Hill  Park,  in  Washington,  D.  C,  so 
recently  signalized  by  the  erection  of  the  new 
Dante  Monument,  was  the  scene  on  the  afternoon 
of  January  6th  of  another  important  unveiling 
ceremony,  at  which  the  President  and  His  Excel- 
lency the  Ambassador  of  France  were  guests  of 
honor,  with  Mrs.  Harding,  Madame  Jusserand, 
and  other  distinguished  visitors.  An  equestrian 
statue  of  Jeanne  d'Arc,  erected  at  the  center  of 
the  Grand  Terrace,  opposite  fashionable  2400  Six- 
teenth Street,  N.  W.,  was  dedicated  on  this,  the 
five  hundred  and  tenth  anniversary  of  the  birth 
of  the  Maid  of  Orleans,  who  was  born  in  the 
village  of  Domremy,  France,  in  141 2. 

The  beautiful  new  Jeanne  d'Arc  Monument  is  a 
gift  to  the  National  Capital  from  the  Societe  des 
Femmes  de  France  of  New  York,  presented 
through  their  President  Fondatrice,  Madame 
Carlo  Polifeme.  More  than  five  years  ago,  in 
May,  19 16,  Madame  Polifeme  wrote  to  the  Com- 
mission of  Fine  Arts:  "Le  Lyceum,  Societe  des 
Femmes  de  France  of  New  York,  in  a  spirit  of 
Patriotism,  nurtured  by  exile,  inspired  with  a 
deep  sense  of  the  friendship  that  binds  our  two 
sister  Republics,  animated  by  a  sympathy  born 
of  closer  and  closer  relations,  Le  Lyceum  intends 
to  perpetuate  these  sentiments  by  erecting  in  their 
new  home  a  monument  to  Jeanne  d'Arc,  emblem 
of  Patriotism,  emblem  of  Love  and  Peace.  The 
statue  of  our  French  heroine  will  be  built  to  the 
glory  of  womanhood,  dedicated  by  the  women  of 
France  in  New  York,  to  the  women  of  America, 
and  offered  to  the  city  of  Washington." 

"The  work  is  regarded  by  artists  as  the  finest 
equestrian  statue  of  modern  times,"  so  the  Com- 
mission of  Fine  Arts  informs  us.  Paul  Dubois  is 
a  leading  French  sculptor.  This  monument  is  a  replica  of  the  celebrated  statue  of  Jeanne  d'Arc 
in  front  of  Rheims  Cathedral  in  France,  which  it  was  believed  miraculously  preserved  the  Cathe- 
dral from  destruction  during  the  bombardment  of  the  late  war.  Another  copy  is  in  Paris:  Our 
new  statue  was  prepared  under  the  direction  of  the  French  Minister  of  Education  and  Fine  Arts, 
at  Paris.  It  measures  about  nine  feet  in  height  and  ten  feet  in  length,  and  is  supported  by  a 
pedestal  of  about  six  feet  in  height,  designed  by  McKim,  Mead  and  White,  architects  of  New 
York  City. 

Modern  research  often  shatters  romantic  illusions,  and  now  informs  us  that  Saint  Joan  of  Arc, 
canonized  as  we  all  know  by  the  Church,  was  not,  as  is  popularly  supposed,  a  shepherd  girl. 
She  was  carefully  educated,  as  all  young  French  girls  are,  and  her  parents  were  neither  ignorant 
nor  impoverished  people. 

Unique  in  history  stands  Joan  of  Arc,  a  symbol  of  patriotic  womanhood,  of  inspiring  idealism. 
So  great  has  become  the  faith  in  her  that  French  soldiers  swear  Joan  of  Arc  appeared  to  them  in 
the  late  war,  leading  them  again  to  Victory.  Sceptical  American  soldiers  even  admitted  a  mys- 
terious influence,  bringing  magical  power. 

It  is  fitting  that  her  Monument  in  Washington  should  crown  the  hill  of  Meridian  Park,  that 
Jeanne  d'Arc  should  be  honored  there,  with  Dante  not  far  away,  who  has  immortalized  Beatrice, 
another  incomparable  and  unknown  woman.  Gertrude  Richardson  Brigham. 


[96] 


BOOK  CRITIQUES 


Olympic  Victor  Monuments  and  Greek  Ath- 
letic Art.  By  Walter  Woodbum  Hyde.  404  pp. 
I.  8vo.,  with  30  plates  and  80  figures  in  photo- 
gravure. The  Carnegie  Institution  of  Washing- 
ton, IQ2I. 

Here  is  a  stout  volume  of  broadly  inter- 
national scholarship  to  prove  that  American 
exponents  of  classical  studies  have  not  allowed 
Azerbaijan  and  Chita  to  suffocate  their 
memories  of  Athens,  Aegina  and  Argos. 
Friends  of  physical  sports  will  do  well  to  consult 
the  author's  initial  chapter  for  the  newest  and 
straightest  dope  on  Greek  games  and  prize 
awards.  His  researches  confirm  the  opinion 
that  all  the  greater  national  games  were 
sepulchral  tributes  to  dead  heroes.  The 
Amerindians  observed  similar  rites.  There  is 
a  fine  suggestion  here  for  American  Legion 
holidays. 

Prehistoric  researches  on  Greek  soil  have 
acquainted  us  with  many  carved  and  painted 
portrayals  of  outdoor  sports  in  the  island 
kingdom  of  Minos,  which  the  ancients  re- 
membered but  dimly.  Cretan  vessels  were 
freighting  cargoes  of  horses  from  Africa  or 
Syria  as  early  as  1600  B.  C.  Mr.  Hyde  misses 
none  of  the  Minyan  and  Mycenaean  toreadores 
and  toreadoras.  The  white  skins  of  the  latter 
establish  their  sex  beyond  controversy  in  spite 
of  their  male  ring  dress,  and  one  may  add  they 
do  not  leave  our  overrated  modern  emanci- 
pations of  young  womanhood  a  leg  to  stand  on. 
Paired  boxers  on  a  carved  drinking  horn  in  the 
Museum  at  Candia  use  the  right  arm  for 
attack  and  the  left  for  defense;  some  of  the 
contestants  wear  helmets  and  cuirasses  (a  good 
idea),  others  wear  boxing  gloves. 

Further  on,  the  author  shows  how  steadily 
competitive  athletics  in  Hellas  moved  away 
from  material  prizes  like  slave  women,  fatted 
oxen  and  mares  in  foal,  silver  jars  and  talents 
of  gold  to  crowns  of  pine,  celery  and  wild  olive. 
A  writer  of  Emperor  Hadrian's  time  quotes  the 
very  test  of  an  oracle  which  directed  King 
Iphitos  of  Elis  to  award  the  last  of  these 
guerdons  of  victory  at  Olympia,  nine  hundred 
years  before  Hadrian;  the  present  author 
erroneously  conjectures  that  earlier  masters 
of  the  games  in  question  previously  awarded 
bronze  tripods  to  the  victors,  for  the  oracle 
expressly  states  the  earlier  prizes  were  apples. 
Prize-winners  consecrated  the  implements  of 
their  exercises  and  models  of  these  implements, 
such  as  small  bronze  chariot  wheels,  at  an  early 
period ;  they  will  presently  erect  small  and  large 

[97] 


statues  of  themselves  and  of  their  racehorses 
near  the  altars  of  the  gods  who  have  favored 
them.  A  stone  of  315  pounds'  weight  now 
lying  at  Olympia  was  hurled  furthest  by  a 
Greek  Siegfried  named  Bybon,  whcse  inscrip- 
tion it  bears  in  an  uncouth  spiral.  One 
Eumastos  consecrates  another  extant  stone 
weighing  1,056  pounds  English,  which  he  has 
lifted,  on  the  island  of  Thera.  Respectable 
performances  both. 

The  author  next  analyses  the  characters  of 
victor  statues  as  to  size  and  proportions,  cloth- 
ing or  nudity,  coiffure,  attributes  and  artistic 
qualities,  in  three  methodical  essays  replete 
with  exact  information  (Chapters  II-IV).  His 
account  of  Greek  horseraces  and  chariot  race? 
and  of  other  contests  like  music  and  shouting, 
in  Chapter  V,  includes  the  monuments  com- 
memorating victories  in  these  non-gymnastic 
events .  Little  or  none  of  the  scattered  literature 
of  his  subject  has  escaped  him.  His  repudia- 
tion of  the  current  opinion  that  Greek  statuar- 
ies executed  all  their  portrayals  of  athletic 
victors  in  bronze,  as  given  in  Chapter  VII,  is 
cogently  fortified  with  examples  of  victor 
statues  done  in  stone  and  marble.  He  dares 
to  assign  a  stunning  Fourth  Century  boxer's 
head  in  the  Museum  of  Olympia  to  no  less  an 
artist  than  Lysippos  of  Sikyon,  a  master  for- 
merly reputed  the  greatest  of  all  Greek 
statuaries.  Hyde's  examination  of  the  marble 
in  question  is  rightly  based,  not  on  the  pseudo- 
Lysippian  Apoxyomenos  of  the  Vatican  Mu- 
seum, but  on  a  statue  which  Preuner  has  proved 
to  be  certainly  a  plagal,  if  not  a  wholly  au- 
thentic piece  of  sculpture  by  no  other  than 
Lysippos  (plate  28  and  figure  68).  This  frontal 
portrait  statue  of  the  Thessalian  nobleman  and 
champion  wrestler  Agias  at  Delphi  and  the 
three  dimensional  man-with-the-strigil  of  the 
Vatican  (plate  29)  were  never  modelled  by  the 
same  eye,  or  even  in  the  same  century.  Our 
critic  would  have  done  well  to  throw  the 
Victorian  misattribution  of  the  latter  statue  to 
Lysippos  altogether  to  the  discard,  as  he  stops 
short  of  doing.  Professor  Hyde's  discovery  of 
this  new  original  by  Lysippos,  which  he  names 
Philandridas,  deserves  to  rank  with  Eugenie 
Sellers'  assignment  of  the  Aberdeen  head  in 
London  to  Praxiteles.  He  connects  another 
head  of  a  young  hero  wearing  a  lion  scalp, 
found  at  Sparta  and  now  in  Philadelphia,  with 
the  manner  of  Skopas. 

It  is  mere  foolishness  to  demand  documen- 
tary evidences  before  conceding  the  value  of 


ART  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


The  European  Summer  School 

A    SUMMER    COURSE    IN 

HISTORY,  ARCHAEOLOGY  AND  ART 

STUDIED    ON    THE     SPOT 
UNDER  THE  GUIDANCE  OF 

UNIVERSITY   SPECIALISTS 

Dr.  H.  H.  Powers 
Dr.  L.  E.  Lord  Oberlin  College 

Dr.  Walter  Miller  University  of  Missouri 
Dr.  Theodore  Lyman  Wright,  Beloit  College 
Dr.  Elizabeth    Haight  Vassar    College 

and  others 


FIFTY   SCHOLARSHIPS 

of  $200  each 

are  offered  in  1922  in  connection 

with  the  above 


The  European  Summer  School  costs  no 
more  than  an  ordinary  tour.  It  is  more  of 
an  education  than  a  year  in  the  university. 
It  excludes  no  legitimate  travel  interest. 

WRITE    FOR    INFORMATION    TO 

BUREAU  OF  UNIVERSITY  TRAVEL 

10x  Boyd  St.,  Newton,  Mass. 


Wk 


r'  r. 


-9> 


THE  ENGRAVINGS      *•*»     7( 
ART  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY         t 
ARE  THE  EXCLUSIVE  WORK  OF 
THE  STANDARD  ENGRAVING  CO. 

THE  EXPRESSION  OF  YOUR  BOOK 
OR  ADVERTISEMENT  IS  FIRST 
REGISTERED  IN  PICTORIAL  ART 
THAT  WILL  CONVEY  YOUR  THOUGHT 
CLEARLY  ;  ',  AS  SPECIALISTS  IN 
DESIGNING  AND  PHOTO  ENGRAVING 
WE  ARE  FULLY  CONSCIOUS  OF 
THESE  FUNDAMENTAL  PRINCIPLES 

STANDARD  ENGRAVING  CO. 

121?.  G  STREET  \  \  \  WASHINGTON.  D.  C. 
HALF  TONES  ICOLQR  WORK.UNC  PLATES 


constructive  criticisms  like  these,  as  indolent 
British  scholars  used  to  do  to  save  themselves 
the  trouble  of  following  "the  conjectural 
vagaries  of  the  Germans." 

All  but  one  of  the  illustrations  are  good,  and 
are  judiciously  chosen.  There  is  a  telling 
juxtaposition  of  three  antique  copies  of 
Myron's  famous  diskthrower  accompanied  by  a 
correct  plastic  restoration  of  that  last  master- 
piece in  plates  22,  23  and  figures  34,  35.  This 
demonstration  renders  the  familiar  misfit  of  the 
London  and  Vatican  Statues  with  a  non- 
pertinent  head  turned  the  wrong  way  utterly 
intolerable.  It  is  time  American  teachers  hit 
the  Fifth  Grade  with  the  correctly  headed 
Diskobolos  Lancellotti,  discovered  in  178 1. 
Several  other  plates  and  figures  will  direct 
scholars  and  connoisseurs  to  superb  heads  of 
young  athletes  they  may  have  overlooked,  in 
Constantinople,  Naples,  Dresden,  Paris,  Boston 
and  New  York. 

A  capital  index  of  nearly  thirty  pages  com- 
pletes this  noteworthy  connected  discussion  of 
the  reciprocal  relations  of  manly  sports  and  the 
fine  arts  in  ancient  Greece. 

Alfred  Emerson. 

A  History  of  European  and  American  Sculp- 
ture from  the  Early  Christian  Period  to  the 
Present  Day,  by  Chandler  Rathfon  Post.  Vols. 
I,  II.  Cambridge,  Harvard  University  Press, 
IQ2I.      $20.00. 

The  author  states  that  his  purpose  in  writing 
this  book  was  to  meet  the  need  of  a  history  of 
the  sculpture  of  our  own  era  for  collateral  read- 
ing by  students  outside  of  the  lecture  room  and 
at  the  same  time  to  gratify  the  demands  of  the 
general  interested  public.  His  intent  was  not 
only  to  give  a  comprehensive  idea  of  the  various 
epochs  but  also  to  trace  the  evolution  of  the 
several  national  schools  and  briefly  to  criticize 
the  sculptors  in  those  schools  as  revealed  in 
their  chief  works.  His  plan  has  been  to  dis- 
tribute the  space  according  to  the  esthetic  sig- 
nificance of  the  epochs  and  masters  under  dis- 
cussion. The  greater  length  given  to  the 
sculpture  of  the  last  two  centuries  is  due  to  the 
fact  that  it  has  hitherto  been  less  satisfactorily 
treated  than  the  production  of  the  earlier  cen- 
turies. Fortunately,  particular  emphasis  is 
placed  upon  American  sculpture,  illustrated 
by  specimens  in  American  collections,  and  its 
relations  to  European  sculpture  have  been 
carefully  considered. 

It  is  gratifying  to  see,  after  a  careful  perusal, 
how  adequate  a  work  the  author,  starting  out 
with  these  fundamental  ideas,  has  produced — 
one  which  will  be  for  long  years  to  come  an 

[9S] 


ART  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


indispensable  book  of  reference  for  every  stu- 
dent of  sculpture  whether  specialist  or  layman. 
It  bears  the  stamp  of  careful  study  and  literary 
excellence  on  almost  every  page;  it  is  an  ably 
Written,  and  on  the  whole,  a  well  proportioned 
contribution  to  scholarship. 

Volume  L  discusses  Early  Christian  Sculp- 
ture (21  pp.),  the  Middle  Ages  (130  pp.),  the 
Renaissance  (122  pp.);  Volume  II,  the  Baroque 
and  the  Rococo  (82  pp.  },  Neoclassicism  (32  pp.), 
Modern  Sculpture  (155  pp.).  There  follow 
an  extensive  bibliography,  in  which  articles 
from  Art  and  Archaeology  arc  several  times 
iiA.-:*i.voii<'d,  an  inchx  to  names  of  sculptors 
and  an  index  *>    pfcwes  mentioned 

The  two  volumes  contahi  a  5  :,,i  1-page  illus- 
tration:-., carefully  chosen  and  admirably  re- 
produced in  half  tone.  They  give  a  compre- 
hensive list  of  the  most  important  sculptures  of 
the  Christian  era  from  all  the  European  coun- 
tries and  the  tJni ted  States.  Haeh  part  con- 
tain- :ni  historic;)!  introduction,  then  follows  a 
treatment  >>f  the  general  character  of  the  sculp- 
ture of  each  country  arid  of  ii^  national  schools 
in  the  ■•  arious  periods. 

In  part  III,  devoted  to  the  Renaissance,  it 
is  gratifying  to  see  that  the  author,  like  Taylor 
in  his  "Thought  and  Expression  in  the  ;6th 
Century  tsee  A.  &  A..  Vol.  XI .  p.  2S3)  retards 
"Pjgnaiss-ance"  as  a  misnomer  if  Understood 
asa"Rei.Miu"  :':-■'"  the  Mid^h  Ages.  Both 
periods  po.  sc-M'd  1  heir  <••>  ■•.:  :,!i.t  and  peculiar 
qualities,  an-!  the  "di\vsity  •  t'-tv  een  the  two 
ages  manifested  Itself  in  two  prjij^rpjj.]  rhan- 
nels  —  in  hitmauis.Pi,  tiie  more-  ;;..;•■»'  and  intulli 
gent  comprehend  >n  of  anticjuit;/;  and  hi  indi 
vidualism,  the  greater  eii-phasi-  upon  frerson 
ality."  In  his  interpretation  of  the  16th 
century,  Mr.  Posi  adwurabh  supplements  the 
work  of  Taylor  in  hi-  dj^cussroii  of  the  general 
field  of  sculpture. 

Part  IV,  devoted  to  the  Baroque  and  Rococo, 
is  of  especial  value  because  the  author  rehabili- 
tates these  by  emphasising  their  excellences. 
He  shows  how  the  Baroque  is  a  inatiifc  station  of 
Italv's  marvelous  genius  for  esthetic  invention 
in  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  the  age,  and 
that  the  rococo  is  the  lighter  and  more  n  lined 
form  01  the  baroque  that  took  r:  •  in  France. 
The  crowning  virtu,  of  the  baroque  c  ?b 
grandiose  impressive -ness;  of  the  rococo,  its 
"individualism  and  even  intimacy"  of  feeling 
and  its  desire  for  sensitiveness  in  art.  Though 
applied  primarily  to  the  greater  exuberance 
of  architectural  decoration,  the  rococo  in  sculp- 
ture, by  its  extreme  nicety  and  subtlety,  re- 
flects the  ultra-refinement  of  the  French  Court. 

Part  V,  Neoclassicism,  represents  a  spouta? 
neous  reaction  against  the  extravagances  of  the 


American  Paintings 

of  Distinction 


Specially  selected  examples  of 
the  work  of  Albert  P.  Ryder, 
George  Innes.  Homer  Martin, 
Ralph  Albert  Blakelock,  Wins- 
low  Homer,  John  H.  Tteacht- 
man,  Robert  L.  Newman, 
W.  Gedney  Buv.ce,  and  other*. 
Landscapes,  figures,  marine':, 
st-Vlkife,  and  mhet  tubwrls. 


Special    Exhibition 

January  16th  to  the  2o':k,  in- 
clusive, „_,' /  liftine*  by  Albert 
Pinkham  Ryder,  nios,.  uf  '  •'' 
June  nezcr  before  been  shown. 


FREDERIC  FAIRCH1LD  SHERMAN 

S  West  47th  Street  New  York  City 

(Studio  knurs  9.30  a.  m.  xc  12.30  noon) 


American    Artists    Series 

StnaU  Quarto.      Beautifully  printed  from  type  on  handmade 

paper  in  limited  editions  and  illustrated 

in  photogravure.. 


ALBERT  PINKHAM   RYDER 

By  FrbdSRIC  Fairchild  Sherman 

11  ilk    reproductions    of   33    representative    paintings.     223 
copies  only  at  $ag.oo  net. 

A  monograph  of  the  highest  interest  to  students  of 
Arr.eiM.an  Art  It  cho ractenz.es  the  artist  enthusiastically 
and  aft  the  same  time  justly.  Mr.  Sherman  adds  to  his 
illuminating  text  an  invaluable  catalogue,  following  this  he 
gives  us  a  useful  bibliography  and  then  lists  the  paintings 
shown  at  the  Academy,  at  the  Society  of  American  Artists 
and  at  the  memorial  exhibition  held  at  the  Metropolitan 
Museum  in  1918. — New  York  Tribute. 

Previously  Published 

Alexander   Wyant.     By  Eliot  Clark $15.00 

Winslow    Homer.     By  Kenyon  Cox 15.00 

Oeorge  In  ness.     By  Elliott  Daingerfitid 7.50 

Homer  Martin.     By  Fyjnk  J   Mather 15.00 

It*   \.  biakelock.      .•>}•   tStliott  Danigefjidd 2.50 

Fifty  Paintings  by  George  Inness .  25.00 

Fifty-eight  Paintings  by  Homer  Martin   15.00 

:<\xi\  Paintings  by  Alexander  Wjant 25. 00 

O'.'tN'iONS  OF  the  Series 
A  series  of  excellent  monographs  on  American  artists. — 
Boston  Transcript. 

A  splendid  series  of  monographs. — The  Dial. 

FREDERIC    FAIRCHILD  SHERMAN 

8  West  47th  Street  New  York 


[99] 


ART  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


Printers 


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WORK 

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ART  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 


And  many  ether  high  grade 
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baroque  and  rococo,  brought  about  largely  by 
the  discovery  of  the  buried  treasures  of  Her- 
culaneum  and  Pompeii  and  the  literary  propa- 
ganda of  Winckelmann.  The  cardinal  prin- 
ciple was  thft  study  of  the  ancient  masterpieces 
rather  than  of  nature,  and  Rome  became  the 
world's  aesthetic  capital. 

Space  does  not  permit  us  to  dwell  on  the 
excellence  of  Part  VI  devoted  to  modern  sculp- 
ture. Suffice  -t  to  say  that  the  section  devoted 
to  the  United  States  gives  us  a  brief  and  com- 
prehensive treatment  of  the  development  of 
American  sculpture  and  of  its  present  status. 
These  two  large  volumes  possess  all  the  per 
fections  of  the  printer's  art,  for  which  Harvard 
University  Press  is  famous.  M.  C. 

Arts  of  the  World,  by  Edwin  Swift  Balch 
and  Eugenia  Marfarlane  Batch.  Philadelphia. 
Press  of  Allen,  Lane  and  Scott.     IQ20. 

Comparative  studies  of  the  arts  of  the  human 
race  in  their  bearing  upon  ethnology,  beginning 
with  the  earliest  examples  exposed  in  art  and 
archaeological  museums  and  in  the  authors' 
™*rr<  j*llection,  purs  ed  during  a  number  of 
years  by  Edwin  Swift  Balch  and  Eugenia 
Macfarlane  Balch,  are  published  in  a  handsome, 
clearly  printed  volume  from  the  press  of  Allen, 
Lane  and  Scott,  bearing  the  title  of  "Arts  of  the 
World,''  and  should  be  regarded  as  a  valuable 
addition  to  the  list  of  works  upon  a  subject 
that  is  daily  growing  in  interest.  The  point 
of  view  taken  by  the  authors  is  rather  different 
from  that  of  most  of  our  American  writers, 
although  quite  often  encountered  in  the  works 
of  many  distinguished  foreign  archaeologists. 

Covering  the  field  from  what  is  known  as 
Pleistocene  period  when  implements  of  stone 
are  the  principal"  objects  remaining  to  us  of 
the  handicrafts,  i<>  the  cinque  cento  revival  in 
Italy,  the  arts  of  man  in  all  parts  of  the  world 
from  prehistoric  times  are  touched  upon  and 
compared  with  each  other,  broadly,  scientific- 
ally and  with  absolute  impartiality. 

The  book  is  especially  interesting  through 
the  information  conveyed  in  reference  to  the 
primitive  arts  such  as  the  Negroid  wood  and 
bronze  sculptures,  the  drawings  and  ivory 
carvings  of  the  Eskimo  and  Chuk-chee  tribes 
of  the.  north-west  Pacific,  the  pottery  and 
decorations  of  the  cliff  dwellers  of  Arizona  and 
New  Mexico.  The  monoliths  and  bas-reliefs 
of  the  Maya  art  and  the  architectural  monu- 
ments of  the  Aztecs  and  their  decorated  pottery 
and  textiles  are  given  their  true  classification 
as  examples  of  an  advanced  stage  of  culture  in 
the  arts.  The  geographical  distribution  of  the 
racial  arts  are  shown  in  a  series  of  maps. 

Eugene  CasteUvO. 

<  [100] 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

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This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 

Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


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General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


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